Modelling and Analyzing Inter-Satellite Relative Motion

Swarms of large numbers of cooperating satellites will introduce new space mission capabilities and complexities. From a mission operations perspective, swarms pose a planning challenge due to the limited scalability of ground operations. The approach of planning and commanding individual satellites simply does not scale for multi-sat swarms of tens or hundreds. If the current state-of-practice continues to be applied, operation of large swarms (e.g., 100 spacecraft or more) will become intractable and cost prohibitive. To avoid this operations bottleneck, a new approach is required: the swarm must operate as a unit, responding to high level commands and constraints. Swarm Orbital Dynamics Advisor (SODA) enables high level user inputs in a single planning cycle. From one high level command, SODA determines all of the required individual satellite maneuvers over time, relieving ground personnel of the tasks of designing and commanding the placement of the swarm members. SODA provides the orbital maneuvers required to achieve a desired type of relative swarm motion. The purpose of SODA is two-fold. First, it encompasses the algorithms and orbital dynamics model to enable the desired relative motion of the swarm satellites. Second, SODA is compatible with a variety of visualization tools. The purpose of SODAs visualization element is to illustrate this concept clearly with a variety of graphics and animations. After computing the optimal orbital maneuvers to modify the swarm, these results are simulated to demonstrate successful swarm control.