Date of Award
5-1-2020
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Computer Science
First Advisor
Sinha, Koushik
Abstract
With plans for advancing into the rest of the solar system in the coming decades, an understanding of how interlinked satellite systems behave as a network will be essential. The relatively recent development of optics as a method of space communication means that inter-satellite networks are more feasible than ever. That said, there are currently no analyses which take into account a planet-wide, largely uncoordinated, optically linked satellite network. To provide a look at the properties of such a network, movement and connections of Earth's currently active satellites were simulated based on real-world data, and their networks modeled via graphs. Ultimately, it was found that many properties of such a network are periodic, fluctuating in sync with the orbital time of low-earth orbit satellites. This, among other data, suggests that the peaks of these waves are caused by a meeting of satellites near the north and south poles.
Access
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