From satellite constellations to swarms

A new scientific satellite design strategy goes beyond that of group-operated communications satellites. In these groups, known as constellations, coordination is carried out from Earth and is basically limited to managing the position of each satellite to ensure coverage in a wider area than each one of them could cover alone.

Butler Hine’s team, from NASA’s Ames Research Center in the United States, is developing satellite swarms, which are groups of spacecraft that work together as a unit, without being individually managed from Earth by mission controllers. . The ability of a swarm to function autonomously will make scientific applications possible that would otherwise be impossible.

NASA Ames Research Center has pioneered swarm technologies for spacecraft and also pioneered CubeSats, very small satellites.

This summer, swarm science will reach a major milestone when NASA launches the Starling mission into space. It will test technologies that allow four spacecraft to operate in a coordinated manner without receiving help from Earth.

The results of Starling’s experiments will be of great interest to a team at the Ames Center that is currently preparing a future space mission to study the Sun using a swarm of spacecraft.

NASA’s Starling mission will test new swarm autonomous navigation technologies on four CubeSats in low-Earth orbit. The illustration is an artist’s recreation of the four CubeSats in orbit. (Image: Blue Canyon Technologies/NASA)

A swarm is not to be confused with a constellation, although both refer to a group of spacecraft working towards a common goal. Individual control of each of the ships in a group from Earth is typical in a constellation.

By contrast, a swarm does not rely on that ground-based control of each separate ship. The spacecraft in a swarm know how to communicate with each other, how to control and maintain precise physical separation between them, and how to maneuver to get where each one needs to be. They will be able to collect data as a group, deciding which member of the team is best placed to make the optimal measurement and which one should transmit that data to Earth. This greatly simplifies the work of controllers on Earth, who would otherwise have to command each spacecraft to meet the science objectives of a mission. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)