V-R3x - CubeSat cross-link, ranging, and coordinated measurement technology demonstration for future distributed CubeSat swarm missions

The V-R3x tech demo will demonstrate low-cost and low-SWaP autonomous high-speed cross-linking, ranging, coordinated radiation measurements, and relative topology recovery utilizing three (3) 1U CubeSats. The heart of the tech demo relies on an experimental S-band radio to perform the high-speed cross-link and ranging experiment. A high altitude balloon flight will achieve the distance required to verify the link budget parameters and ranging performance. Problem Statement Future NASA missions will require the coordination of multiple spacecraft to achieve their objectives. To date, commercial satellite operators are developing new methods for navigating, controlling, and communicating with small satellites in LEO that scale to hundreds of spacecraft but still require heavy use of ground-based infrastructure, centralized planning, and control performed from the ground. A greater degree of autonomy is needed for truly robust and scalable coordination between many spacecraft, both in LEO and beyond. V-R3x will demonstrate key wireless autonomous networking and radio navigation algorithms to enable such large swarms of spacecraft. Technology Maturation Functional and performance test of experimental RF cross-link and ranging activities in a space-like environment.

• Cutting-edge: Advances efforts for small spacecraft distributed architectures • Enabling: Reduces reliance on Earth-based resources to scale spacecraft coordination Future Customers A successful on-orbit demonstration of V-R3x will open new small spacecraft distributed architectures in astronomy, Earth observation, solar physics, and exploration beyond LEO.

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