MUSTANG: A Technology demonstrator for formation flying and distributed systems technologies in space

Future astronomical, surveillance and communications concepts are expected to depend heavily upon distributed systems – many satellites flying in formation to form synthesized detector arrays many times the size of each individual spacecraft. Various concepts for these systems are already under development at establishments around the globe. The MUSTANG project is a UK programme funded by the British National Space Centre (BNSC) to demonstrate distributed systems using two nanospacecraft in a low Earth orbit. This will include the demonstration of a variety of formation flying techniques as well as demonstrating various enabling technologies that will facilitate such distributed systems. The use of many small spacecraft in distributed systems greatly increases the potential for the production of large amounts of space debris. Passive end-of-life de-orbit technologies will also be demonstrated to address this proble