Starling is a Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) project under the Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) and managed at Ames Research Center by the Spaceflight Division (Code RS). It is a NPR 7120.8 technology demonstration mission. Starling is intended to be one of the series of demonstration missions that will test technologies required to achieve affordable, distributed spacecraft swarm missions that: are scalable to at least 100 spacecraft for applications that include making synchronized multipoint measurements; involve closely coordinated ensembles of two or more spacecraft operating as a single unit for interferometric, synthetic aperture, or similar sensor architectures; require autonomous or semi-autonomous operation of multiple spacecraft functioning as a unit to achieve exploration and/or science mission objectives with low-cost small spacecraft. In particular, Starling will fly four 6U CubeSats in Low-Earth Orbit for at least 6 months and will demonstrate several spacecraft swarm technologies and collect data on three other payloads. The following swarm technologies will be demonstrated: Ad hoc dynamic communications network; Onboard cluster station-keeping and reconfiguration; Relative navigation; Distributed spacecraft autonomous decision-making. < https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/small_spacecraft/starling/ >
More »This project advances the state of the art in swarm technologies, which has the potential to reduce mission costs through the use of simpler and less expensive spacecraft to meet mission needs. It also has the potential to improve mission robustness in that the failure of a single, potentially redundant spacecraft would not result in a failed mission. Finally, swarm based missions have the potential to accomplish distributed science and technology goals such as coordinated multipoint measurements and synthetic apertures.
More »Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
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Blue Canyon Technologies, LLC | Lead Organization | Industry | Boulder, Colorado |
Ames Research Center (ARC) | Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Moffett Field, California |
Emergent Space Technologies, LLC | Supporting Organization | Industry | Greenbelt, Maryland |
Stanford University (Stanford) | Supporting Organization | Academia | Redwood City, California |