Venusian Radio Occultation Constellation Design and Reconfiguration Problems: A Benders Decomposition Approach
Abstract
Driven by the scientific value of Venusian atmospheric studies, numerous missions, such as Magellan and Venus Express, have relied on single-spacecraft radio occultation (RO) experiments. Despite their proven success, data throughput is inherently limited by the use of a single transmitter and its relative geometry with respect to Earth-based receivers. Therefore, the literature proposes leveraging a constellation of spacecraft to increase RO measurement opportunities and improve spatial and temporal coverage; however, current efforts impose strict simplifying assumptions that limit their applicability and responsiveness to complex mission narratives. Beyond initial constellation design, evolving mission objectives may require event-based constellation reconfiguration during operations. To address both design and operational needs, we propose two problems formulated as integer linear programs: the RO Constellation Configuration Design Problem and the RO Constellation Reconfiguration Problem. Further, we address the programs' solution-space explosion with a Benders decomposition approach. Numerical experiments show the applicability of our problems for constellation configuration design, tackle the full mission pipeline, transitioning from global atmospheric profiling to on-demand regional profiling above areas of volcanic interest, and show that the Benders decomposition approach efficiently obtains high-quality solutions to large-scale instances.
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BibTeX
@misc{rogers2026venusian,
title = {{Venusian Radio Occultation Constellation Design and Reconfiguration Problems: A Benders Decomposition Approach}},
author = {David O. Williams Rogers and Trupti P. Gosavi and Hang Woon Lee},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.16807},
eprint = {2610.16807},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16807},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Venusian Radio Occultation Constellation Design and Reconfiguration Problems: A Benders Decomposition Approach
AU - David O. Williams Rogers
AU - Trupti P. Gosavi
AU - Hang Woon Lee
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.16807
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16807
AB - Driven by the scientific value of Venusian atmospheric studies, numerous missions, such as Magellan and Venus Express, have relied on single-spacecraft radio occultation (RO) experiments. Despite their proven success, data throughput is inherently limited by the use of a single transmitter and its relative geometry with respect to Earth-based receivers. Therefore, the literature proposes leveraging a constellation of spacecraft to increase RO measurement opportunities and improve spatial and temporal coverage; however, current efforts impose strict simplifying assumptions that limit their applicability and responsiveness to complex mission narratives. Beyond initial constellation design, evolving mission objectives may require event-based constellation reconfiguration during operations. To address both design and operational needs, we propose two problems formulated as integer linear programs: the RO Constellation Configuration Design Problem and the RO Constellation Reconfiguration Problem. Further, we address the programs' solution-space explosion with a Benders decomposition approach. Numerical experiments show the applicability of our problems for constellation configuration design, tackle the full mission pipeline, transitioning from global atmospheric profiling to on-demand regional profiling above areas of volcanic interest, and show that the Benders decomposition approach efficiently obtains high-quality solutions to large-scale instances.
ER -