Developing a distributed and fractionated system of 10 grams satellites for planetary observation

The miniaturization of electronic components enables major reduction of spacecraft size and mass, as is the caseof CubeSats, PocketQubes, and Femtosats, which offer shorter development time and costs, in comparison withtraditionally larger satellites. However, these miniaturized satellites still require a considerable effort in terms of timeand investment (several years of development, and costs around 105-106 EUR for CubeSats). More recently, an evensmaller class of spacecraft, the Chipsats has been introduced. Chipsats are microchip-shaped spacecraft with massesranging from a few grams to 10s of grams. At the lower end of the mass range (1-10 grams), they belong to the classof Attosats. Due to their small size, Attosats enable unprecedented low costs, agile development and potential forswarm missions of distributed and fractioned systems for applications such as planetary observation. However,despite their benefits there have not been many initiatives to develop Attosat systems. In this article, the developmentof a satellite system of three 10-grams satellites is presented. The three satellites work together to achieve thecommon goal of studying Earth’s atmospheric environment, conforming a distributed system. Moreover, as thedifferent satellites are designed to perform different functions, they conform a fractionated system as well: onesatellite acts as a communication node transmitting data to ground stations, while the two other satellites haveenvironment sampling capabilities. Visual intersatellite communication capabilities ensure data transmission amongthe satellites. The presented system is meant as a technology demonstration project for future distributed andfragmented satellite swarm systems for atmospheric planetary exploration. The Attosats are scheduled for launch onOctober 2023 on board of a Momentus spacecraft