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The African Space Agency aims to unify the available resources across the African Continent. One of these resources includes communication services and internet connectivity to cover African areas. To achieve this goal, this study proposes a standalone system, namely a satellite constellation system applying the Street of Coverage (SOC) method. This method includes three configurations, inclined orbit, symmetrical polar orbit, and non-symmetrical polar orbit. A Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is considered due to its advantage in its low latency, making it ideal for communication purposes. A mathematical model governing the SOC constellation is deduced. Results are visualized and analyzed using the System Tool Kit (STK) application. A validation case is proposed by comparing consistency with a well-known satellite constellation OneWeb produced by the international company Eutelsatgroup. Two potential satellite constellations are proposed to provide coverage across underserved African areas. In the first configuration, the symmetric polar constellation is utilized with 612 satellites uniformly distributed along 18 planes. This system is characterized by its low cost, high efficiency, and optimum performance as a standalone solution. In the second configuration, the equatorial satellite constellation with 25 satellites uniformly distributed along the equatorial plane is analyzed. This configuration is a more economical solution that uses fewer satellites and relies on back-hauling between available communication networks.

In July 2016, NASA’s Juno mission becomes the first spacecraft to enter polar orbit of Jupiter and venture deep into unexplored polar territories of the magnetosphere. Focusing on these polar regions, we review current understanding of the structure and dynamics of the magnetosphere and summarize the outstanding issues. The Juno mission profile involves (a) a several-week approach from the dawn side of Jupiter’s magnetosphere, with an orbit-insertion maneuver on July 6, 2016; (b) a 107-day capture orbit, also on the dawn flank; and (c) a series of thirty 11-day science orbits with the spacecraft flying over Jupiter’s poles and ducking under the radiation belts. We show how Juno’s view of the magnetosphere evolves over the year of science orbits. The Juno spacecraft carries a range of instruments that take particles and fields measurements, remote sensing observations of auroral emissions at UV, visible, IR and radio wavelengths, and detect microwave emission from Jupiter’s radiation belts. We summarize how these Juno measurements address issues of auroral processes, microphysical plasma physics, ionosphere-magnetosphere and satellite-magnetosphere coupling, sources and sinks of plasma, the radiation belts, and the dynamics of the outer magnetosphere. To reach Jupiter, the Juno spacecraft passed close to the Earth on October 9, 2013, gaining the necessary energy to get to Jupiter. The Earth flyby provided an opportunity to test Juno ’s instrumentation as well as take scientific data in the terrestrial magnetosphere, in conjunction with ground-based and Earth-orbiting assets.

Orbit selection of the remote sensing polar satellite is critical for polar observation missions. This paper reviews the current status and characteristics of satellite orbits in polar region, and analyzes the pros and cons of four major types of remote sensing polar satellite orbits, namely sun - synchronous orbits, geosynchronous orbits, low - Earth polar orbits, and highly elliptical orbits. For future remote sensing polar satellites with high resolution, sun - synchronous orbits should be chosen for optical remote sensing missions, and low - Earth polar orbits are suitable for other remote sensing missions with no specific requirements for lighting conditions on the ground. Using constellation with multiple satellites and multi-orbit coordination can achieve full coverage and frequent revisits in polar regions. Finally, it is pointed out that there is an urgent need to build a dedicated remote sensing polar satellite system. Furthermore, there is a need to further explore new types of polar orbits and corresponding application scenario, as well as to develop commercial small satellites for polar region, in order to enhance the comprehensive capabilities of observation in polar region.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) is NASA's next instrument dedicated to extending the record of the dry-air mole fraction of column carbon dioxide (XCO2) and solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) measurements from space. The current schedule calls for a launch from the Kennedy Space Center no earlier than April 2019 via a Space-X Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule. The instrument will be installed as an external payload on the Japanese Experimental Module Exposed Facility (JEM-EF) of the International Space Station (ISS) with a nominal mission lifetime of 3 years. The precessing orbit of the ISS will allow for viewing of the Earth at all latitudes less than approximately 52∘, with a ground repeat cycle that is much more complicated than the polar-orbiting satellites that so far have carried all of the instruments capable of measuring carbon dioxide from space. The grating spectrometer at the core of OCO-3 is a direct copy of the OCO-2 spectrometer, which was launched into a polar orbit in July 2014. As such, OCO-3 is expected to have similar instrument sensitivity and performance characteristics to OCO-2, which provides measurements of XCO2 with precision better than 1 ppm at 3 Hz, with each viewing frame containing eight footprints approximately 1.6 km by 2.2 km in size. However, the physical configuration of the instrument aboard the ISS, as well as the use of a new pointing mirror assembly (PMA), will alter some of the characteristics of the OCO-3 data compared to OCO-2. Specifically, there will be significant differences from day to day in the sampling locations and time of day. In addition, the flexible PMA system allows for a much more dynamic observation-mode schedule. This paper outlines the science objectives of the OCO-3 mission and, using a simulation of 1 year of global observations, characterizes the spatial sampling, time-of-day coverage, and anticipated data quality of the simulated L1b. After application of cloud and aerosol prescreening, the L1b radiances are run through the operational L2 full physics retrieval algorithm, as well as post-retrieval filtering and bias correction, to examine the expected coverage and quality of the retrieved XCO2 and to show how the measurement objectives are met. In addition, results of the SIF from the IMAP–DOAS algorithm are analyzed. This paper focuses only on the nominal nadir–land and glint–water observation modes, although on-orbit measurements will also be made in transition and target modes, similar to OCO-2, as well as the new snapshot area mapping (SAM) mode.

BepiColombo is a joint mission between the European Space Agency, ESA, and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, to perform a comprehensive exploration of Mercury. Launched on 20 th October 2018 from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, the spacecraft is now en route to Mercury. Two orbiters have been sent to Mercury and will be put into dedicated, polar orbits around the planet to study the planet and its environment. One orbiter, Mio, is provided by JAXA, and one orbiter, MPO, is provided by ESA. The scientific payload of both spacecraft will provide detailed information necessary to understand the origin and evolution of the planet itself and its surrounding environment. Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun, the only terrestrial planet besides Earth with a self-sustained magnetic field, and the smallest planet in our Solar System. It is a key planet for understanding the evolutionary history of our Solar System and therefore also for the question of how the Earth and our Planetary System were formed. The scientific objectives focus on a global characterization of Mercury through the investigation of its interior, surface, exosphere, and magnetosphere. In addition, instrumentation onboard BepiColombo will be used to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Major effort was put into optimizing the scientific return of the mission by defining a payload such that individual measurements can be interrelated and complement each other.

We investigate the redshift and blueshift of light emitted by timelike geodesic particles in orbits around a Kerr–Newman–(anti) de Sitter (KN(a)dS) black hole. Specifically we compute the redshift and blueshift of photons that are emitted by geodesic massive particles and travel along null geodesics towards a distant observer-located at a finite distance from the KN(a)dS black hole. For this purpose we use the killing-vector formalism and the associated first integrals-constants of motion. We consider in detail stable timelike equatorial circular orbits of stars and express their corresponding redshift/blueshift in terms of the metric physical black hole parameters (angular momentum per unit mass, mass, electric charge and the cosmological constant) and the orbital radii of both the emitter star and the distant observer. These radii are linked through the constants of motion along the null geodesics followed by the photons since their emission until their detection and as a result we get closed form analytic expressions for the orbital radius of the observer in terms of the emitter radius, and the black hole parameters. In addition, we compute exact analytic expressions for the frame dragging of timelike spherical orbits in the KN(a)dS spacetime in terms of multivariable generalised hypergeometric functions of Lauricella and Appell. We apply our exact solutions of timelike non-spherical polar KN geodesics for the computation of frame-dragging, pericentre-shift, orbital period for the orbits of S2 and S14 stars within the 1″ of SgrA*. We solve the conditions for timelike spherical orbits in KN(a)dS and KN spacetimes. We present new, elegant compact forms for the parameters of these orbits. Last but not least we derive a very elegant and novel exact formula for the periapsis advance for a test particle in a non-spherical polar orbit in KNdS black hole spacetime in terms of Jacobi’s elliptic function sn and Lauricella’s hypergeometric function FD.

Magnetic spectrometer PAMELA was launched onboard a satellite Resurs-DK1 into low-Earth polar orbit with altitude 350-600 km to study cosmic ray antiparticle fluxes in a wide energy range from ∼ 100 MeV to hundreds GeV. This paper presents the results of observations of temporal variations of the positron and electron fluxes in the 2006-2015. The ratio of the positron and electron fluxes below 2 GV shows sharp increasing since 2014 due to changing of the polarity of the solar magnetic field.

Precise Doppler tracking of the Juno spacecraft in its polar orbit around Jupiter is used to determine the planet’s gravity harmonics, showing north–south asymmetry caused by atmospheric and interior flows. Probing the depths of Jupiter The Juno mission set out to probe the hidden properties of Jupiter, such as its gravitational field, the depth of its atmospheric jets and its composition beneath the clouds. A collection of papers in this week's issue report some of the mission's key findings. Jupiter's gravitational field varies from pole to pole, but the cause of this asymmetry is unknown. Rotating planets that are squashed at the poles like Jupiter can have a gravity field that is characterized by a solid-body component, plus components that arise from motions in the atmosphere. Luciano Iess and colleagues use Juno's Doppler tracking data to determine Jupiter's gravity harmonics. They find that the north–south asymmetry arises from atmospheric and interior wind flows. To determine the depths of these flows, Yohai Kaspi and colleagues analyse the odd gravitational harmonics and find that the J 3 , J 5 , J 7 and J 9 harmonics are consistent with the jets extending deep into the atmosphere, perhaps as far as 3,000 kilometres. They conclude that the mass of Jupiter's dynamical atmosphere is about one per cent of Jupiter's total mass. The composition of Jupiter beneath its turbulent atmosphere remains a mystery. If different parts of a spinning object rotate at different rates, then the object probably has a fluid composition. Tristan Guillot and colleagues study the even gravitational harmonics and find that, below a depth of about 3,000 kilometres, Jupiter is rotating almost as a solid body. The atmospheric zonal flows extend downwards by more than 2,000 kilometres, but not beyond 3,500 kilometres, as is also the case with the jets. The gravity harmonics of a fluid, rotating planet can be decomposed into static components arising from solid-body rotation and dynamic components arising from flows. In the absence of internal dynamics, the gravity field is axially and hemispherically symmetric and is dominated by even zonal gravity harmonics J 2 n that are approximately proportional to q n , where q is the ratio between centrifugal acceleration and gravity at the planet’s equator 1 . Any asymmetry in the gravity field is attributed to differential rotation and deep atmospheric flows. The odd harmonics, J 3 , J 5 , J 7 , J 9 and higher, are a measure of the depth of the winds in the different zones of the atmosphere 2 , 3 . Here we report measurements of Jupiter’s gravity harmonics (both even and odd) through precise Doppler tracking of the Juno spacecraft in its polar orbit around Jupiter. We find a north–south asymmetry, which is a signature of atmospheric and interior flows. Analysis of the harmonics, described in two accompanying papers 4 , 5 , provides the vertical profile of the winds and precise constraints for the depth of Jupiter’s dynamical atmosphere.

The algorithm for choosing a trajectory of spacecraft flight to the Moon is discussed. The characteristic velocity values needed for correcting the flight trajectory and a braking maneuver are estimated using the Monte Carlo method. The profile of insertion and flight to a near-circular polar orbit with an altitude of ~100 km of an artificial lunar satellite (ALS) is given. The case of two corrections applied during the flight and braking phases is considered. The flight to an ALS orbit is modeled in the geocentric geoequatorial nonrotating coordinate system with the influence of perturbations from the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon factored in. The characteristic correction costs corresponding to corrections performed at different time points are examined. Insertion phase errors, the errors of performing the needed corrections, and the errors of determining the flight trajectory parameters are taken into account.

The Juno spacecraft acquired direct observations of the jovian magnetosphere and auroral emissions from a vantage point above the poles. Juno’s capture orbit spanned the jovian magnetosphere from bow shock to the planet, providing magnetic field, charged particle, and wave phenomena context for Juno’s passage over the poles and traverse of Jupiter’s hazardous inner radiation belts. Juno’s energetic particle and plasma detectors measured electrons precipitating in the polar regions, exciting intense aurorae, observed simultaneously by the ultraviolet and infrared imaging spectrographs. Juno transited beneath the most intense parts of the radiation belts, passed about 4000 kilometers above the cloud tops at closest approach, well inside the jovian rings, and recorded the electrical signatures of high-velocity impacts with small particles as it traversed the equator.