Modeling and visualized simulation of satellite constellation and its coverage problem

For researching satellite constellation and its coverage, a set of satellite constellation visualized simulation software was developed. This software can display the geometry of the constellation, satellite attitude motion, relevant groundtrack and coverage circle. This soft is made of storage, computation and result display module. Storage module uses database technology to handle the correlative initial parameter. Display module uses OpenGL and simple GIS technology to show constellation, satellite attitude and groundtrack and coverage circle. Orbit dynamics model, attitude model and coverage model used computation module were given. Atmospheric drag and J2 perturbation were taken into account in Orbit dynamics model. The Cowell method was used to set up orbit motion differential equations. For precision, the equations were solved by Adams linear multi-step method. To solve the sparse constellation's coverage problem, the coverage model was set up. Revisit time can be solved by numeric method or analytical method. The simulation sample and program running impression were given.