Spaceflight Formation Flying Test Bed Takes Off

coondoggie writes "Getting complicated systems onboard a single spacecraft to operate as one integrated unit can be hard enough, but some space agencies are trying to address the challenges of getting multiple spacecraft to fly in formation and operate together as one unit. Such challenges are exactly what a new European Space Agency lab in the Netherlands is set to address. The test bed addresses crucial operational factors for formation flying, including mission and vehicle management, guidance navigation, dealing with faults and communicating between satellites."

Re:formations

[cynyr]

why do they need to be in tight formation? a voltron style bot? well i guess something like each bot has a mirror, and they are making a huge telescope, but i fail to see how thats better than just using a rigid structure in the first place. bolt it together so it can be put together by 6 bots, and then taken back down the same way, and be hauled "up" in pieces.

I'm Dumb as a Stone

[b4upoo]

Apparently I must be dumb as a rock as it would seem to me that several jets flying information have the same problem as satellites traveling together. Speed, position and collision avoidance seem to be old issues to me. I wonder if the government actually farmed out money to grow a solution? Am I a dummy or what goes here?

Re: I'm Dumb as a Stone

[wagnerrp]

Aircraft have aerodynamic control surfaces to maneuver, spacecraft must do everything with reaction thrust. Not only do you have a limited amount of fuel, of which you cannot get more, but you have to worry about dousing others in the formation with your exhaust. Formation flight is generally for the purpose of some sort of phased array telescope, and you don't want to gunk up your optics with rocket fuel.

Something like the classified NOSS???

[Dr La]

The US Navy has quite some experience (decades, actually) with formation flying with their NOSS (Naval Ocean Surveillance System) SIGINT satellites (http://www.satobs.org/noss.html [satobs.org]). The old one flew in tight triangular formations of three (quite a sight to see), the newer ones do it with two. They serve to pinpoint ships based on their radio communications.

Also, the Chinese appear to be experimenting with a similar concept (http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2010/08/china-launches-military-satellite-yaogan-weixing-10/ [nasaspaceflight.com]).

Here are two pictures I shot of two of the newer NOSS formations, NOSS 3-4 launched in 2007 and NOSS 3-2 launched in 2003:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b176/marcoaliaslama/satellites/170109NOSS3_4.jpg [photobucket.com]
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b176/marcoaliaslama/satellites/131208NOSS3_2.jpg [photobucket.com]