Distributed space missions applied to sea surface height monitoring

Distributed space missions can offer significant advantages in cost and complexity over traditional, monolithic spacecraft. The ability of a distributed space mission to perform synthetic aperture radar interferometry for the purpose of sea surface height monitoring is assessed. A multiobjective genetic algorithm is used to vary payload distribution, payload parameters and orbital parameters and to explore the impact of these parameters on measurement error, mission cost, revisit time, and resilience to failure. It is shown that a distributed space mission offers an estimated savings of 26% compared to the upcoming monolithic Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, suggesting that distributed space missions can meet requirements at similar or reduced costs while offering benefits such as reduced payload complexity and schedule flexibility. Additionally, an extension of the Helix formation to an arbitrary number of satellites is presented.