Modeling and simulation of a satellite constellation based on Petri nets

This paper presents the approach taken by the French Space Agency for studying the availability of today's relevant space systems: satellite constellations. These non-Markovian distributed systems require powerful models to be described and analyzed. Over a generic example of a satellite constellation we illustrate Petri net's ability to deal with such complex projects from both modeling and evaluation view points. Results of such studies overcome the sole verification of availability objectives and actually provide interesting outputs for project managers. This is shown through the interpretation of typical results.