Orbital Edge Computing

TLDR

Advances in nanosatellite technology and lower launch costs have enabled large constellations of sensor‑equipped low‑Earth‑orbit satellites that typically use a bent‑pipe architecture where ground stations send commands and receive raw data. The study examines how a bent‑pipe architecture fails when Earth‑observing satellite constellations grow. The authors analyze how ground‑station location, nanosatellite antenna size, and on‑orbit harvested energy constrain communication over time. They find that bent‑pipe architectures collapse as constellation size grows and that nanosatellite capabilities are quantitatively limited by physical system constraints.

Abstract

Advances in nanosatellite technology and a declining cost of access to space have fostered an emergence of large constellations of sensor-equipped satellites in low-Earth orbit. Many of these satellite systems operate under a "bent-pipe" architecture, in which ground stations send commands to orbit and satellites reply with raw data. In this work, we observe that a bent-pipe architecture for Earth-observing satellites breaks down as constellation population increases. Communication is limited by the physical configuration and constraints of the system over time, such as ground station location, nanosatellite antenna size, and energy harvested on orbit. We show quantitatively that nanosatellite constellation capabilities are determined by physical system constraints.