SATELLITE REGIONAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING ELLIPTICAL ORBITS Russian patent published in 2000 - IPC

FIELD: satellite communications engineering. SUBSTANCE: system has at least three artificial Earth satellites placed in their respective elliptical orbits and net of ground stations. Orbits of all satellites have similar orbital period T found from equation T = t/N, where t is day-and-night period; N is total number of satellites in system, and similar inclination of orbit plane to equator plane which is, in effect, equal to critical value; pericenter of each orbit is in hemisphere opposite to service area. Actually proposed system has six artificial Earth satellites; orbital period is chosen from mentioned equation; inclination of orbit plane of each satellite to equator plane is, in effect, about 63.4 deg (i ≈ 63,4^o); artificial satellites placed in adjacent orbits are arranged so that all of them reach orbital pericenter point at shift of half or one third of orbital period relative to each other. EFFECT: improved stability of communications among ground stations in chosen region including Russian territory; reduced cost. 3 cl, 9 dwg, 4 tbl