Satellite cluster command and control

For many applications a distributed cluster of cooperating satellites offers distinct advantages over satellites functioning alone. These include optimization of mission performance and increased fault tolerance. Although there are many benefits, commanding and controlling a large cluster of cooperating satellites poses several challenges. These include how satellites in the cluster maintain knowledge of the other satellites in the cluster in order to react to contingencies and optimize resources, how to treat the cluster as a single virtual satellite in terms of ground command and control, and how to distribute resources across the cluster. The Space Vehicles Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is investigating many of these challenges through prototype development for the AFRL TechSat-21 program. This paper presents the challenges posed in cluster command and control and discusses several methods being developed to address those challenges.