Final project: The Martian Network
How three Area Stationary Sattelites (ASS) cover the surface of Mars
When we researched for possible constallations for the system, we also considered the possibility to use only three ASS. We show in this section how such constallation covers the Martian surface provided that the minimum elevation angle is 0 degrees in one case and 10 degrees in the other. Here is an illustration of the constallation
The following figure shows the coverage when the minium elevation angle is 10 degrees and the one below one shows the coverage with the minimum elevation angle of 0 degrees. Below we also the detailed analysis of the coverage for both cases.
When the minimal elevation angle is 10 degrees, which we consider as acceptable for such a hilly terrain as on Mars, the provided coverage is not sufficient at 90%. If the results were acceptable, such a system would be relatively cheap to realize, since only 3 satellites are needed. That percentage can be increased to 97.3 %, if the minimal angle requirement is decreased to 0 degrees. The coverage would be very close to the specified one, however, due to such a low elevation angle, the line-of-sight would be obstructed very often.