Nasa is highlighting its progress with testing autonomous satellites in constellations using a technology it calls Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA).

Nasa testing swarm technology for autonomous satellites

The goal is to allows individual spacecraft to make independent decisions while also collaborating with each other. They would all be working towards common goals or mission objectives but without direct human input.

The long term goal is improve multi-spacecraft mission adaptability, says Nasa. In other words, efficiently allocate tasks between spacecraft using ad-hoc networking, on distributed space missions.

The NASA researchers into the “swarm technology” are managing the DSA project at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.

They advanced the technology through two main efforts. First, the development of software for small spacecraft that was demonstrated in space during NASA’s Starling mission. This involved four CubeSat satellites operating as a swarm to test autonomous collaboration and operation with minimal human operation. Second, was a ground-based scalability study of a simulated spacecraft swarm in a virtual lunar orbit.

DSA
The DSA project team reports achieving multiple firsts in tests of such swarm technology as part of the agency’s DSA project.

“The Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy technology is very unique,” said Caleb Adams, DSA project manager at NASA Ames. “The software provides the satellite swarm with the science objective and the ‘smarts’ to get it done.”

“We did not tell the spacecraft how to do their science,” he added. “The DSA team figured out what science Starling did only after the experiment was completed. That has never been done before and it’s very exciting!”

Caleb Adams is pictured above alongside the test racks containing 100 spacecraft computers

Autonomous satellites
With updates to Starling ongoing, the initial demonstration of the technology took place between August 2023 and May 2024, but the project was first introduced back in October 2017.

Starling’s swarm of spacecraft received GPS signals that pass through the ionosphere. They can reveal, says Nasa, interesting but fleeting features for a swarm to focus on.

Nasa writes:

“Each Starling satellite analyzed and acted on its best results individually. When new information reached each spacecraft, new observation and action plans were analyzed, continuously enabling the swarm to adapt quickly to changing situations.”