Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite mega-constellations aim to enable high-speed Internet for numerous users anywhere on Earth. To safeguard their network infrastructure in congested outer space, they perform automatic orbital maneuvers to avoid collisions with external debris and satellites. However, our control-theoretic analysis and empirical validation using Starlink's space situational awareness datasets discover that, these safety-oriented maneuvers themselves can threaten safety and networking via cascaded collision avoidance inside the mega-constellation. This domino effect forces a dilemma between long-term LEO network lifetime and short-term LEO network capacity. Its root cause is that, the decades-old local pairwise maneuver paradigm for standalone satellites is inherently unstable if scaled out to recent mega-constellation networks. We thus propose an alternative bilateral maneuver control that stabilizes self-driving mega-constellations for concurrent network lifetime and capacity boosts. Our operational trace-driven emulation shows a 8$\times$ network lifetime extension in Starlink without limiting its network capacity.

翻译：低地球轨道（LEO）卫星巨型星座旨在为地球上任何地方的众多用户实现高速互联网。为了在拥挤的外层空间中保护其网络基础设施，它们执行自动轨道机动以避免与外部碎片和卫星碰撞。然而，我们基于控制理论的分析以及使用Starlink空间态势感知数据集进行的实证验证发现，这些以安全为导向的机动本身可能通过巨型星座内部的级联碰撞避免机制威胁安全和网络性能。这种多米诺效应迫使长期LEO网络寿命与短期LEO网络容量之间陷入两难困境。其根本原因在于，为独立卫星设计的几十年来一直采用的局部成对机动范式，在扩展到最近的巨型星座网络时本质上是不稳定的。因此，我们提出了一种替代性的双边机动控制方法，以稳定自驾驶巨型星座，同时提升网络寿命和容量。我们的操作轨迹驱动仿真表明，在不限制其网络容量的情况下，Starlink的网络寿命可延长8倍。