Venusian Radio Occultation Constellation Design and Reconfiguration Problems: A Benders Decomposition Approach

David O. Williams Rogers; Trupti P. Gosavi; Hang Woon Lee

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arXiv · 2610.16807

Venusian Radio Occultation Constellation Design and Reconfiguration Problems: A Benders Decomposition Approach

David O. Williams Rogers·Trupti P. Gosavi·Hang Woon Lee

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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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David O. Williams Rogers, Trupti P. Gosavi, Hang Woon Lee. 2026-10-12. Venusian Radio Occultation Constellation Design and Reconfiguration Problems: A Benders Decomposition Approach. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16807

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