Conceptual Design of the FAST-D Formation Flying Spacecraft

The paper presents the latest results in the design of FAST-D, the Dutch micro-satellite for the Dutch–Chinese FAST (Formation for Atmospheric Science and Technology demonstration) formation flying mission. Over the course of the 2.5 year mission, the two satellites, FAST-D and FAST-T, will demonstrate various new technologies and perform...

Mission Design of the Dutch-Chinese FAST Micro-Satellite Mission

The paper treats the mission design for the Dutch-Chinese FAST (Formation for Atmospheric Science and Technology demonstration) mission. The space segment of the 2.5 year mission consists out of two formation flying micro-satellites. During the mission, new technologies will be demonstrated and, using spectropolarimeter and altimeter payloads on...

Fractionated spacecraft: The new sprout in distributed space systems

This paper provides a survey of current state-of-the-art technologies of fractionated spacecraft, a new architecture for distributed space systems. The survey covers six aspects: architecture, networking, wireless communication, wireless power transfer, distributed computing, and planned missions implementing this architecture. As a result of...

Status of the fast mission: Micro-satellite formation flying for technology, science and education

FAST (Formation for Atmospheric Science and Technology demonstration) is a cooperative Dutch Chinese formation flying mission led by Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands and Tsinghua University in China. It is expected to be the first international micro-satellite formation flying mission to achieve objectives in three...

Opportunities and challenges of wireless sensor networks in space

Challenges and opportunities of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in space applications are presented. The investigation of internet protocols, ad hoc routing and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) wireless communication protocols for efficient and reliable network design is addressed. In order to facilitate the analysis, several application...

Uncertainty multidisciplinary design optimization of space systems in the presence of new attributes

The problem of new attributes and the induced uncertainties has been extensively discussed in this paper. The methodology of uncertainty multidisciplinary design optimization has also been extended to spacecraft conceptual design in the presence of new attributes. The application of this methodology on fractionated spacecraft indicates that the...

Multi-agent testbed for distributed space systems

Several industries are involved in the development of distributed systems, testbeds are needed to simulate the real world challenges that face the distributed systems. Presently, there are a number of testbeds in the world with very distinctive characteristics. Delft University of Technology is involved in the development of distributed space...

Uncertainty multidisciplinary design optimization of distributed space systems

The design of Distributed Space Systems (DSSs) is a challenging task, especially in the conceptual design stage where unknown or uncertain information extensively exist. This paper investigates the problem of designing DSSs in the presence of uncertainties. The uncertainties associated with DSSs are discussed. It is shown that DSSs are...

Characterizing Network Architecture for Inter-satellite Communication and Relative Navigation in Precise Formation Flying

Precise formation flying (PFF) missions require formation acquisition and maintenance through interactions among spacecraft by inter-satellite communication and relative navigation. That requires the network architecture to satisfy dedicated system constraints of time-criticality for updating navigation measurements and flexibility for...

Cubesats to pocketqubes: Opportunities and challenges

<b>In the last two decades, CubeSats have changed the perception of satellite missions aided by standardization and usage of commercial-off-the-shelf components. CubeSats have also proven the feasibility of low cost and short development time space missions. The PocketQube with a form factor of 5x5x5 cm has been...

Lunar Orbit Design of a Satellite Swarm for Radio Astronomy

Employing a satellite swarm for radio astronomy has been continuously addressed in the Orbiting Low Frequency ARray (OLFAR) project. A 100 km diameter of aperture array constructed by distributed satellites will be able to provide sky maps of better than 1 arc-minute spatial resolution at 10 MHz. However, an orbit design strategy for the...

Autonomous Mission Planning for OLFAR: A Satellite Swarm in Lunar Orbit for Radio Astronomy

Orbiting Low Frequency Array for Radio Astronomy (OLFAR) is a radio astronomy mission that has been studied since 2010 by several Dutch universities and research institutes. The mission aims at producing sky maps by collecting cosmic signals at ultra-low wavelengths regimes, below the 30 MHz frequency band. A satellite swarm comprising more than...