Elliptical orbit satellite, system, and deployment with controllable coverage characteristics

摘要

An elliptical orbit satellite system which describes communication and TT&C with ground stations. Earth stations are located for the circular orbiting satellite in a way such that the line of sight can never include geo synchronous satellites. The ground stations for the elliptically orbiting satellites monitor the position of the satellite, and no antenna communicates with a satellite which is in direct line of sight between the antenna and a geo satellite. Another aspect of the invention locates two TT&C stations, separated in longitude by 90 DEG and configures these stations such that each satellite in each constellation will be able to communicate with one of the two TT&C stations once during each satellite rotation period.