CubeSat Swarms could Advance Scientific Space Exploration
ESA is asking the public for innovative ideas for new mission concepts enabled by CubeSat swarms. The open call for ideas, which is being run by the Preparation element of ESA's Basic Activities through the Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP), welcomes ideas for both scientific and commercial applications.
"In the last four years we've demonstrated that CubeSats can effectively communicate with each other via inter-satellite links, and we have exciting developments in our technology program for their movement control in all directions."
Roger Walker, head of ESA's CubeSat Systems Unit.
A CubeSat is a miniature satellite made up of one or more standard-sized 'units'. Each unit measures just 10 cm×10 cm×10 cm and weighs less than two kilograms (≈4.4 pounds). They are quick and cheap to produce and can carry all sorts of instruments on board. Almost 2000 of these tiny spacecraft have already been launched into space; while these have mostly operated alone, technological developments in recent years mean that we may soon use 'swarms' of tens of CubeSats that operate autonomously.
"In the last four years we've demonstrated that CubeSats can effectively communicate with each other via inter-satellite links, and we have exciting developments in our technology program for their movement control in all directions," said Roger Walker, head of ESA's CubeSat Systems Unit. "When you combine this finely controlled propulsion with inter-satellite links and visual or radio-based navigation, from a hardware perspective you're able to fly swarms. All that’s left is to address the challenges in software to guide, control and safely manage the swarm as a whole.
"We really encourage proposals from consortia – partnerships between industry and research institutes – because in our experience this leads to concepts which are realistic from a technical point of view, while being focused on interesting applications," Walker said.
ESA is Looking for Ideas for Two Type of CubeSat Swarms
ESA is specifically soliciting ideas for two types of CubeSat swarms. One is a distributed swarm, in which many CubeSats fly in formation, connected by inter-satellite links and using onboard data processing techniques to generate a single output that gets sent back to Earth. The alternative is an aggregated swarm, in which separate CubeSats rendezvous and dock together, potentially with a larger central hub, to form a larger modular spacecraft that can autonomously (re)assemble itself. Both types of swarms allow us to overcome the size and weight constraints of the rockets that carry them to space, and could challenge classical spacecraft design methods and operations.
Swarms could be particularly useful for applications in astronomy, heliophysics, Earth observation and telecommunication. For example, a swarm could function as a large in-space telescope, or it could measure how solar wind varies across space. This can be done either close to Earth or in deep space. Swarms could also provide improved, cheaper or novel forms of telecommunication and remote sensing for Earth science and commercial applications.
The call for ideas will be open until February 17, 2023. Interested parties can find full details and up-to-date information of the timing, process and conditions via OSIP. Selected mission concepts will be given six months and funding from ESA up to €100,000 (≈$107,000) to perform a mission/system concept study. The best concept will then be awarded a session at the Agency's Concurrent Design Facility together with ESA experts, potentially the first step towards an In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD). ESA hopes to launch the first swarm IOD missions by 2026, to have the first operational mission launched by 2029.
(Source: ESA. Images provided)