Review of Formation Flying and Constellation Missions Using Nanosatellites

Abstract

Small satellites are enabling multisatellite missions that were not otherwise possible because of their small size and modular nature [1]. Multiple small satellites can be flown instead of a much bigger and costlier conventional satellite for distributed sensing applications such as atmospheric sampling, distributed antennas [2], and synthetic apertures [3,4]. Missions with multiple small satellites can deliver a comparable or greater mission capability than a monolithic satellite, but with significantly enhanced flexibility (adaptability, scalability, evolvability, and maintainability) and robustness (reliability, survivability, and fault tolerance) [1,5]. Small satellites that weigh less than 10 kg can be broadly classified into nanosatellites (mass between 1 and 10 kg), picosatellites (mass between 0.1 and 1 kg), and femtosatellites (mass less than 100 g) [1,6].