NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley is developing satellite swarms that can work together as a unit without being managed individually by mission controllers. The swarm’s ability to perform autonomously will make new types of science and exploration possible, particularly as they venture farther into deep space. NASA is launching the Starling mission into space this summer to test technologies that let four spacecraft operate in a coordinated manner without resources from the ground. The results of Starling’s experiments will be of great interest to researchers at Ames who are preparing a future swarm mission to study the Sun. The swarm will be able to collect data as a group, deciding which member of the team is best placed to take the optimal measurement and which should relay that data to Earth. The swarm could self-determine when and where the most fruitful science observations should be made and delegate the job to the most appropriate individual at a given time.
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