Small Celestial Body Exploration with CubeSat Swarms

This work presents a large-scale simulation study investigating the deployment and operation of distributed swarms of CubeSats for interplanetary missions to small celestial bodies. Utilizing Taylor numerical integration and advanced collision detection techniques, we explore the potential of large CubeSat swarms in capturing gravity signals and reconstructing the internal mass distribution of a small celestial body while minimizing risks and Delta V budget. Our results offer insight into the applicability of this approach for future deep space exploration missions. Introduction In the last decade CubeSats have emerged as an innovative and cost-effective platform for testing new satellite technologies, with applications ranging from Earth observation to deep space missions. For instance, the HERA interplanetary mission that will explore the Didymos binary system in 2025 will embark two CubeSats to perform a detailed exploration of the system.