The “Sueddeutsche Zeitung”, represented by Mr. Dieter Sürig reports about S4-GmbH and the Center for Telematics in Würzburg’s achievement of being the first team wordwide to attempt a small satellite formation with mini satellites. The NetSat project demonstrates for the first time the self-organization of several satellites in three-dimensional space within the framework of a formation in orbit.

As part of NetSat, four Cubesats (with a mass of only 4 kg) were developed with the necessary miniaturized subsystems to allow operations in the form of a self-organizing formation; examples include advanced systems for attitude determination and control, orbit determination, telecommunication, electrical propulsion for orbit control and formation maintenance, in particular also distributed, adaptive control systems related to self-organisation in orbit. This mission realizes, for the first time worldwide, a formation flight of satellites in a three-dimensional configuration. This enables potential innovative future applications in Earth observation.

Link: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/raumfahrt-start-up-gruender-satelliten-esa-1.5046805