Planet observation system and method for remote sensing

A system for planet observation, the system comprising:

• one or more satellites of a constellation of satellites configured to follow a trajectory around a celestial body;
• one or more sensors onboard the one or more satellites;
• a geometric ground pattern comprising a plurality of geometric fragments;
• and
• a control system comprising memory and one or more processors, the memory including one or more modules that are executable by the one or more processors to:
• assign at least one geometric fragment from the plurality of geometric fragments to the one or more satellites;
• determine, based at least in part on the at least one geometric fragment, at least one curve function;
• determine, based on the at least one curve function, attitude maneuvers;
• orient the one or more sensors using, at least in part, the attitude maneuvers;
• collect data by the one or more sensors onboard the one or more satellites;
• and
• store the data in memory onboard the one or more satellites and/or transmitting the data from the one or more satellites to another location;
• wherein the at least one curve function provides at least one point on the surface of the celestial body of the at least one geometric fragment and the one or more sensors are oriented towards the at least one point on the surface of the celestial body.

A computer-implemented method of designing a geometric ground pattern for at least one vehicle configured to orbit around a celestial body, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) defining a plurality of corridor reference geometric fragments being at a first distance from each other at a latitude corresponding to the equator,
• b) defining at least one additional geometric fragment for each corridor reference geometric fragment, such that each of the additional geometric fragments longitudinally extends respectively adjacent to one reference geometric fragment, wherein the additional geometric fragments are at a second distance from each other, smaller than the first distance,
• c) if the additional geometric fragments overlap with each other more than a threshold level of overlap at any point within the geometric ground pattern, at least partially removing overlapping point(s) and/or areas from the additional geometric fragments;
• and
• d) repeating steps b) and c) to define additional geometric fragments adjacent to at least one of the previously defined additional geometric fragments, until the additional geometric fragments overlap each other at the equator's latitude a certain threshold level of overlap or until covering a predetermined area on the surface of the celestial body.