Spacecraft Swarm Missions

Technological advancements across the small satellite community have enabled new approaches to complex, large scale missions. Multi-spacecraft geometries of constellations, clusters, and swarms are being developed to undertake a variety of defense, scientific, and commercial missions. These missions leverage groups of small satellites working together as a system. This lecture will discuss the technology advancements being used for spacecraft swarm missions, and how those are being deployed, tested, and adopted into future missions. Two missions serve as current examples of the development and use of swarm technology: the Starling Technology Mission and the HelioSwarm Science Mission. Starling is a technology demonstration mission launched last year and flying in space now testing key swarm technologies. HelioSwarm, currently in development, is a multi-spacecraft swarm science mission that will transform our understanding of space plasma turbulence. These are pathfinding missions that enable future large scientific and commercial swarms.