On development of 100-gram-class spacecraft for swarm applications

Fred Y. Hadaegh, Soon Jo Chung, Harish M. Manohara

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A novel space system architecture is proposed, which would enable 100-g-class spacecraft to be flown as swarms (100 s-1000 s) in low Earth orbit. Swarms of Silicon Wafer Integrated Femtosatellites (SWIFT) present a paradigm-shifting approach to distributed spacecraft development, missions, and applications. Potential applications of SWIFT swarms include sparse aperture arrays and distributed sensor networks. New swarm array configurations are introduced and shown to achieve the effective sparse aperture driven from optical performance metrics. A system cost analysis based on this comparison justifies deploying a large number of femtosatellites for sparse aperture applications. Moreover, this paper discusses promising guidance, control, and navigation methods for swarms of femtosatellites equipped with modest sensing and control capabilities.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number6880762
Pages (from-to)673-684
Number of pages12
JournalIEEE Systems Journal
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2016

Keywords

  • Autonomous agents
  • Control systems
  • Distributed control
  • Satellites
  • Space technology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'On development of 100-gram-class spacecraft for swarm applications'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this