Toward Massive Satellite Swarms: A Simulation Framework for Precision Formation Flying

Research Note

Future direct-to-device (D2D) satellite communications may require thousands of ultra-small satellites flying in precise coordination to form a distributed phased-array antenna, providing both wide-area coverage and high gain that no single spacecraft can deliver. Designing and evaluating control algorithms for such large formations demands simulation tools that combine high-fidelity orbital mechanics with scalable parallel execution — a combination existing frameworks do not satisfy.

We present a distributed simulation framework for large-scale satellite formation flying. The framework decomposes the simulation into independent modules for orbital propagation, electromagnetic force computation, and control algorithms, connected through ROS2 publish–subscribe messaging. A snapshot-based synchronization mechanism coordinates modules at fixed intervals while orbital propagators internally advance with adaptive timesteps. Built on Orekit, the system incorporates perturbation models including non-spherical Earth gravity, atmospheric drag, solar radiation pressure, and third-body effects.

Evaluation on formations of up to 10,000 satellites demonstrates a 7.6× speedup with 16 parallel nodes under full perturbation models, while position errors remain below 0.4 mm RMS over 7-day two-body validation runs. The modular architecture allows researchers to integrate new control algorithms without modifying existing modules.