Malav Patel

Below are some articles I’ve published.

Journal Articles

  1. Cislunar Satellite Constellation Design via Integer Linear Programming
    • Authors: Malav Patel, Yuri Shimane, Hang Woon Lee, Koki Ho
    • Journal: The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences
    • Year: 2024
    • DOI: DOI Link
    • Abstract: Cislunar space domain awareness is of increasing interest to the international com-munity as Earth-Moon traffic is projected to increase, which raises the problem of placing space-based sensors optimally in a constellation to satisfy the space domain awareness demand in cislunar space. This demand profile can vary over space and time, making the design optimization problem challenging. This paper tackles the problem of satellite constellation design for spatio-temporally varying coverage demand by leveraging an integer linear programming formulation. The developed optimization formulation assumes the circular restricted 3-body dynamics and attempts to minimize the number of satellites required for the requested demand profile.
  2. Concurrent Optimization of Satellite Phasing and Tasking for Cislunar Space Situational Awareness
    • Authors: Malav Patel, Kento Tomita, Koki Ho
    • Journal: The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences
    • Year: 2025
    • DOI: DOI Link
    • Abstract: Recently, renewed interest in cislunar space spurred by private and public organiza-tions has driven research for future infrastructure in the region. As Earth–Moon trafficincreases amidst a growing space economy, monitoring architectures supporting this traf-fic must also develop. These are likely to be realized as constellations of patrol satellitessurveying traffic between the Earth and the Moon. This work investigates the concurrentoptimization of patrol satellite phasing and tasking to provide information-maximal trafficcoverage in periodic orbits. The core contribution is a formulation that defines and solvesan optimization problem. We cast the problem as an optimization program with an “outerloop” that solves the phasing problem and an “inner loop” that solves the tasking prob-lem. We analyze two such objectives and present a trio of algorithms for optimization. Wepresent case studies outlining the efficacy of our solution methods, sensitivity to constel-lation dynamics, and a contrastive analysis of policy behavior with choice of objective.