Nanosatellite constellation control framework using evolutionary contact plan design

Abstract

Space agencies, educational institutions, and private companies have adopted CubeSat nanosatellites to do scientific research, training, technology demonstration, and space-based industries in the New Space era. The next step in this changing space sector corresponds to the assembly and operation of large satellite constellations consisting of hundreds or thousands of small- or nano-satellites. This context adds new requirements and challenges to the production and operation lines of these space projects. This work focuses on the agile operation of a large nanosatellite constellation with inter-satellite communications. We propose using the constellation contact topology to design contact plans using evolutionary algorithms and use the contact plan information to control the constellation operations. The contact plan is then used to create a Global Flight Plan table that summarizes all the operations required to execute a proposed task. Thus, satellites and ground station nodes only need a flight software capable of queuing, executing, and transferring Flight Plan commands. The evolutionary contact plan design approach shows promising scalability results opening the possibility of controlling satellite mega constellation of hundreds or thousands of nanosatellites.