Functional, physical, and organizational architectures of a fractionated space infrastructure for long-term earth observation missions

Fractionated spacecraft is a novel architecture of distributed space systems (DSS), where its functionalities, such as computation, communication, data storage, payload, and even power generation, are distributed over several independent spacecraft that share those functionalities through a wireless network. It is this physically separated yet functionally wireless-linked characteristic that makes fractionated spacecraft unique to other space systems. Compared with traditional monolithic spacecraft, there are two main features of fractionated spacecraft. One is physical decomposition of the single spacecraft into several modules; the other is information integration among modules. Each module in the system hosts one or several components, which may be the functional parts of a satellite such as pay-load or resource components. In order to perform information integration, modules should maintain a cluster fight, which is distinguishable from formation flying due to the fact that there is no requirement for precise station-keeping. However, several technical barriers need to be broken down to pave the way for fractionated spacecraft to come into being. Along with networking, wireless communication, wireless power transfer, and distributed computing, cluster operation has been identified as one of the enabling technologies [1]. Challenges for cluster operations may be internal, for example to avoid collisions among modules, or external, for example to evade debris-like threats.