Enhancing ground communication of distributed space systems

Abstract The functionality of a distributed system can be significantly enhanced by exploring non-traditional approaches that leverage on inherent aspects of distributed systems in space. Till now, the benefit of distributed systems in space has been limited to enhancing coverage, multipoint sensing, creating virtual baselines (e.g. interferometry) or to enhance redundancy. The list of benefits can be further expanded by understanding the nature of distributed systems and by productively incorporating it into mission and spacecraft design. For example, prior knowledge of the spatial evolution of such systems can lead to innovative communication architectures for these distributed systems. In this paper, different communication scenarios are investigated that can enhance the communication link between the distributed system and ground. The increasing trend towards highly miniaturized spacecraft (nano- to femto-satellites) and proposals to launch hundreds or even thousands of them in massively distributed space missions have expanded the interest in distributed systems with miniature spacecraft. It is important to understand how and which, functionalities and systems, scale with size and number. Scalable systems are defined and addressed at a basic level and the utility of scaling rules and trends in identifying optimal configurations of distributed systems is explored. In this paper we focus on the communication capability and identify methods to enhance the communication link between a distributed space segment, consisting of a number of simplistic, resource limited femto-satellites, and earth. As an example, the concept of forming a dynamic phased array in space with the elements of a distributed space system in low-earth orbit is investigated. At the ground receiver, the signals from different satellites forming the array should not differ in phase by more than one-third the transmission wavelength, to ensure constructive superposition. Realizing such a phased array places strict accuracy requirements on time synchronization and knowledge of relative separation between the satellites with respect to the ground receiver. These constraints are derived and discussed.