Computational Nanosatellite Constellations: Opportunities and Challenges

As rocket launch cadences increase, access to space rises dramatically - setting the stage for the next space industry surge. New, smaller, and less expensive satellites - now "nanosatellites" - can be deployed en masse to form constellations of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of devices [27, 40, 41, 16, 17, 18, 43]. A constellation of nanosatellites equipped with sensors (e.g., visual or hyperspectral cameras, particle detectors, or magnetometers) and radios provides a first-time opportunity for orbital swarm sensing to synthesize data from the unique vantage point of low-Earth orbit (LEO).