The Possibility of a Deep Scanning Survey of Part of the Sky from a Low-Orbit Spacecraft with Fixed Orbital Orientation

Abstract

We analyze the possibility of performing a deep survey of a part of the sky near the poles of the spacecraft orbit from a low-orbit spacecraft with fixed orbital orientation. The survey depth can be increased by several magnitudes by reducing the surveyed sky area to strips along one or two minor circles at constant declination. The surveyed area is scanned by precession of the spacecraft.

Keywords

• all-sky survey
• deep survey
• scanning observations
• photometry
• orbital orientation