Visibility Analysis of Iridium Communication for SNIPE Nano-Satellite

Compared to the continuous increase of domestic nano-satellite development cases, the initial communication success rate is relatively low. In a situation where communication cases of LEO satellites using commercial satellite communication networks are increasing recently. In this situation, the SNIPE project developed by the KASI(Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute), KARI(Korea Aerospace Research Institute), and Yonsei University apply an Iridium module for communication test to the SNIPE nano-satellites. Therefore, in this paper, the visibility analysis of the iridium module on the SNIPE satellite was analyzed under considering the orbital and communication environment of the iridium satellite constellation and the attitude control mode. In the case of LEO satellites, the communication possibility was limited due to the relatively small iridium communication coverage for high altitude and the high doppler shift considered in the iridium communication network. For this reason, in this paper, it could be simulated that there was a more performance difference according to the difference in relative RAAN(Right Ascension of Ascending Node) angle with the Iridium constellation. Finally, by checking the visibility of communication module under the tumbling situation that occurred during the initial deployment of the nano-satellite, the possibility of using the iridium communication technology was analyzed.