Session
Session IV: LEO Missions
Abstract
Nodes is a pair of 1.5 U Cubesats developed by the NASA Ames Research Center under the Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) within NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). The Nodes spacecraft were launched to the ISS in December, 2015 and deployed from the ISS in early May of 2016. Nodes is designed to expand the utility of small spacecraft networks and to explore issues related to the command and control of swarms of multiple spacecraft making synchronized, multipoint scientific measurements. Networked swarms of small spacecraft will provide new insights in the fields of astronomy, Earth observations and solar physics. Their range of applications include the formation of synthetic aperture radars for Earth sensing systems, large aperture observatories for next generation telescopes and the collection of spatially distributed measurements of time varying systems, probing the Earth’s magnetosphere, Earth-Sun interactions and the Earth’s geopotential. While these swarms have great potential, they create new challenges to the Cubesat community related to managing large numbers of spacecraft in close proximity. The Nodes mission addresses these challenges through three primary objectives. The Nodes spacecraft will autonomously self-organize, selecting which spacecraft will lead the formation, collect data and pass those data to the ground, all based on the states of the spacecraft. It will also demonstrate the commanding of spacecraft in a swarm, from the ground and through the network. Finally, Nodes will make synchronized, multi-point science measurements of the Earth’s charged particle environment. This paper describes the Nodes spacecraft and mission and preliminary results from the Nodes flight experiment. Furthermore, the communications architecture and approach to managing swarms of spacecraft are discussed. Finally, future network enhancements that can be built on top of the current Nodes architecture are suggested.
Nodes: A Flight Demonstration of Networked Spacecraft Command and Control
Nodes is a pair of 1.5 U Cubesats developed by the NASA Ames Research Center under the Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) within NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). The Nodes spacecraft were launched to the ISS in December, 2015 and deployed from the ISS in early May of 2016. Nodes is designed to expand the utility of small spacecraft networks and to explore issues related to the command and control of swarms of multiple spacecraft making synchronized, multipoint scientific measurements. Networked swarms of small spacecraft will provide new insights in the fields of astronomy, Earth observations and solar physics. Their range of applications include the formation of synthetic aperture radars for Earth sensing systems, large aperture observatories for next generation telescopes and the collection of spatially distributed measurements of time varying systems, probing the Earth’s magnetosphere, Earth-Sun interactions and the Earth’s geopotential. While these swarms have great potential, they create new challenges to the Cubesat community related to managing large numbers of spacecraft in close proximity. The Nodes mission addresses these challenges through three primary objectives. The Nodes spacecraft will autonomously self-organize, selecting which spacecraft will lead the formation, collect data and pass those data to the ground, all based on the states of the spacecraft. It will also demonstrate the commanding of spacecraft in a swarm, from the ground and through the network. Finally, Nodes will make synchronized, multi-point science measurements of the Earth’s charged particle environment. This paper describes the Nodes spacecraft and mission and preliminary results from the Nodes flight experiment. Furthermore, the communications architecture and approach to managing swarms of spacecraft are discussed. Finally, future network enhancements that can be built on top of the current Nodes architecture are suggested.
