The Army is looking for sensors to guide swarms of nanosatellites. The goal is a distributed aperture electro-optical sensor that will be carried in formations of nanosatellites, according to the Army research solicitation.
Resource: Read the research proposal
While each individual satellite should have a specific sensor or control function, the overall formation/swarm should have a greater function, according to the Army.
“Of particular interest are solutions with multiple onboard processing computer clusters, very high bandwidth communications architectures, imagery collection/dissemination, SAR/ISAR, MASINT, and GPS alternatives,” the solicitation reads.
Related: After GPS: The future of navigation
However, small satellites suffer from power limitations. “Of particular interest is new power storage, collection, handling, and distribution concepts that will enable higher power components for communications and active sensors,” said the Army.
