Commanding and controlling satellite clusters - Intelligent Systems, IEEE [see also IEEE Expert]

Directorate, we are developing architectures for commanding and controlling a cluster of cooperating satellites through autonomous software development for the TechSat 21 program (see the “TechSat 21” sidebar starting on page 10). Many space missions require large, monolithic satellites. This often results in costly, complex, failure-prone vehicles whose physical size constraints limit their performance characteristics. Recently, various organizations have begun to explore how distributed clusters of cooperating satellites can replace their larger monolithic counterparts to reduce overall costs, enhance mission performance, and increase system fault tolerance (see Figure 1).1 Large clusters of satellites flying in formation must have some level of onboard autonomy to • fly within specified tolerance levels; • avoid collisions; • address fault detection, isolation, and resolution (FDIR); • share knowledge; and • plan and schedule activities.