Smallsat Swarm Sparse Aperture SAR for Recon and Surveillance (SSSASAfRaS)

The goal of Phase II work is to further advance the TRL of the swarm coordination and control algorithms from the current estimated TRL 3 to a TRL 4-5. The technical objectives proposed for Phase II are divided into two broad categories that support the goal. One category includes continuation and refinement of the work performed in Phase I and the other category includes new work, some of which has already been initiated.nbsp;Continuation work: C1) update the MATLAB/Simulink simulator to include dynamic closing and opening of inter-SV communications links and sensor noise; C2) simulate the loose swarm aggregation for the entire swarm using the maneuvers and control algorithms designed in Phase I; C3) simulate the transition from a loose swarm to a coordinated swarm configuration; C4) simulate orbit maneuvering of the coordinated swarm orbit to acquire its nominal orbit; C5) simulate the transition between a coordinated swarm to a nominal formation; and C6) simulate nominal operations to determine control and coordination strategies during the off and on duty cycles of the radar payloads. Nota bene: the simulation work also includes further controller development and upgrades, identification of new TPMs for swarm operations, and tracking the swarm performance with the TPMs described in the previous sections.nbsp;New work: N1) develop methods for and investigate swarm stability in the context of an ad hoc network between swarm members; N2) develop methods for and analyze swarm stability with nonlinear dynamics in the context of ESF; N3) design, implement, and test an ADCS for the SVs of the SSSASAfRaS swarm; N4) design optimal orbit maintenance maneuvers to keep the swarm operating in vLEO; and N5) implement select algorithms on a network of resource limited, commercial SBCs, and perform tests to verify their performance.nbsp;In addition to the objectives described above the SV design will be updated as informed by the results of the simulations described above.