Guidance, Navigation and Control Algorithms for Satellite Formation Flying (2nd Edition)
A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Astronautics & Space Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 1369
Special Issue Editors
Interests: development of AOCS/GNC algorithms; simulation systems; flight software for autonomous formation flying and proximity operation applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: GNC; onboard autonomy; precise navigation; rendezvous; formation-flying
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We can announce the second edition of the Special Issue of the MDPI open access journal Aerospace, titled “Guidance, Navigation and Control Algorithms for Satellite Formation Flying (2nd Edition)”.
Formation flying missions enable technological applications of scientific and societal relevance where standard monolithic solutions fail. Distributed space systems, swarms, and fractionated systems are a key asset for building extended, flexible, and scalable space endeavors. Moreover, a significant number of current technological research efforts address multi-satellite missions devoted to in-orbit servicing, assembly, manufacturing and recycling, as well as active debris removal activities.
The operation of satellites in proximity, with different levels of cooperation/collaboration among them, demands the development of relative guidance, navigation and control (GNC) systems, which offer all the functions that complement the standard orbit/attitude determination and control tasks of single-satellite missions. In addition, mission safety for collision avoidance among the spacecraft of the formation must be ensured. Frontier research efforts for developing relative GNC algorithms focus on improving navigation/control performances, increasing the level of autonomy and minimizing the computational load while ensuring robust and reliable approaches suitable for spaceborne implementation.
This Special Issue will collect contributions covering a range of aspects related to GNC systems, ranging from relative navigation and establishing and maintaining the required relative configuration between the elements of a space distributed system to collision avoidance monitoring and maneuvering. Particular attention will be devoted to algorithms’ development and verification. Potential applications include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Formation flying missions for Earth observation;
- Formation flying missions for space observation;
- In-orbit servicing, assembly, manufacturing, and recycling missions;
- In-orbit inspection and active debris removal missions;
- Swarms missions;
- Formation flying missions around small bodies.
Dr. Gabriella Gaias
Dr. Jean-Sébastien Ardaens
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- relative navigation
- relative orbit determination
- spacecraft rendezvous
- satellite formation flying
- formation reconfiguration
- active debris removal
- autonomy
- swarms
- distributed space systems
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