Outerspace

Israel to Launch First Ever Autonomous Nanosatellites on Formation Flying

A group of three nanosatellites that will fly on a controlled formation flying for the first time will be launched at the end of 2018. The project intends to prove that a group of satellites could sustain a controlled formation during a period of one year while flying at a 600 km altitude.

The satellites will receive signals from Earth and calculate the location of the emission source for purposes of search and rescue, detection and identification, remote sensing and environmental monitoring.

The size of each satellite is 10X20X30 cm, and their total weight reaches 8 kg. The satellites will carry measuring devices, antennas, computer systems, control systems and navigation equipment. The software and algorithms that will direct the flight were developed in the laboratory for distributed space systems at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.