A Survey on Digital Twin in Aerospace in the New Space Era

Digital twin (DT) implements physical products of real space in a virtual digital space like twins. DT is a software-based technology that has a powerful advantage of being relatively economical in development time and cost than that of hardware-based technologies. In addition, DT can increase system productivity, improve maintenance performance, and enable remote access and control. These strengths are well suited to converge with private-led aerospace development in the New Space era, which pursues low cost and high efficiency. Currently, DT is applied in a variety of fields, including satellite systems, spacecraft, exploration of the Moon, and asteroid sample return mission. This paper introduces the latest applications of DT in aerospace.