A formation flying technology vision

TLDR

Formation flying is transforming Earth and space science by enabling autonomous guidance, navigation, and control, expediting human exploration, and ultimately creating swarms of spacecraft that act as distributed platforms to collect richer data. The paper outlines a vision for future space exploration via GN&C technology, reviews NASA's current development and partnerships, and identifies the obstacles and transfer strategy needed to realize distributed spacecraft systems. Formation flying is enabled by automated GN&C systems linked through intrasatellite communications, employing differential GPS, optical, vision‑based, and celestial navigation, and is being validated on testbeds such as AFRL University Nanosats, Orion, and GSFC ground facilities.

Abstract

Formation Flying is revolutionizing Earth and Space science and the way the space community conducts science missions. This technological transformation provides new, innovative techniques in spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control, and how the science community gathers and shares information between space vehicles and the ground. These technologies will also expedite the human exploration of space. Once fully matured, this technology will result in swarms of space vehicles flying as virtual platforms or distributed space systems and sensor webs which gather significantly more and better science data than is possible today. Formation flying will be enabled through the development and deployment of automated spaceborne guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) systems integrated with intrasatellite communications infrastructure. Innovative spacecraft autonomy techniques, such as differential Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, optical, and vision-based navigation and celestial navigation allow autonomous navigation while other technologies provide for the autonomous control methods to maintain and optimize these formations. This paper provides a vision of the future of space exploration in the context of GN&C technology, and an overview of the current status of NASA technology development and its partnerships with the Department of Defense (DoD), Industry, and University to bring formation flying technology to the forefront as quickly as possible. We address the impediments that need to be overcome to achieve the distributive spacecraft vision and NASA GSFC's approach to transfer this technology to space. We will also describe some of the formation flying testbeds, such as the on-orbit Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) University Nanosats, and Orion test beds and ground based GSFC Formation Flying Test Bed, which are being developed to demonstrate and validate innovative position sensing and formation control technologies.