The purpose of many spacecraft is to observe and/or communicate with subjects on or near the surface of the Earth. The visibility of a subject from a spacecraft will depend both on the location of the subject and the type of orbit that the spacecraft is in. The orbit can be altered if propulsion is available on the spacecraft. When dealing with multiple spacecraft working together (as in a constellation) an optimization can be performed to determine which spacecraft should alter their orbit by how much. This research is currently underway.

To visually inspect the results of the research, I extended my prior Orbital Simulation research to arrive at a spacecraft simulator which has been quite valuable at better understanding the geometries and orbital maneuvering.