Of course, for this method to work, the
orbital plane of an exoplanet must be such that it crosses the star as viewed by Earth.
The planets in the Kepler-47 system were detected via the "transit method." If the
orbital plane of the planet is aligned edge-on as seen from Earth, the planet can pass in front of the host stars, leading to a measurable decrease in the observed brightness.
To do that, they have to remove the oldest satellites to make sure their
orbital plane is clean.
The optimization variables, outlined in Table 2, contain seven parameters: the number of
orbital planes, the number of satellites per
orbital plane, phase factor, orbital height, inclination, the equivalent area of satellite downlink antenna, and transmission power of a satellite.
One scenario to investigate is that this spacecraft got a boost to high velocity by the slingshot method shown in the article, which would work well only if the final velocity vector was near the
orbital plane of the planet used.
"By then, the three huge mirrors will divide the 360-degree
orbital plane, continuously illuminating an area for 24 hours," Wu Chunfeng, head of Tian Fu New Area Science Society and the company responsible for the project, told newspaper in an interview.
All 10 satellites for this mission will be deployed to Iridium
orbital plane number 5 where they will go into operation immediately following a thorough testing and validation process.
In addition, the base satellite actively drags the detector under a small, continuous, and constant thrust in an
orbital plane.
Determining the axial tilt of planets or the angle between the planet's equatorial plane and
orbital plane proves difficult to assess accurately, given the limitations of the observational points of view on Earth.
Maybe it's 9.8 (in [degrees]C per km, the dry adiabatic lapse rate), 23.5 (in degrees, the declination of Earth with respect to the
orbital plane), or 26.5 (in [degrees]C, the sea surface temperature threshold for tropical cyclone formation).