Dear Colleagues,

The increasing complexity of approaches and methods of solving fundamental and applied problems of space exploration often leads to the need to create distributed space systems. A number of satellites united in one system and flying at a relatively short distance from each other or at similar orbits are simultaneously working on solving a common problem. The growing popularity of small satellites allows launching a large number of satellites. Due to constraints in mass, cost, and volume of the small satellites, however, translational and attitude motion control has become a scientific and engineering challenge. A wide variety of non-traditional and advanced classical control systems and approaches have been developed to solve particular problems for formation flying or constellations, though a thorough study of their application is required.

This Special Issue invites submissions that develop new formations flying or constellation control algorithms and investigate performance analytically, numerically or using laboratory testing. The topics include but are not limited to:

• Small satellite formation flying dynamics;
• Constellation deployment strategies;
• Low-thrust propulsion application for distributed space systems;
• Electromagnetic formation flying control;
• Differential drag control application;
• Satellite swarm control algorithms;
• Active space debris removal by small satellites;
• Relative navigation in formation flying;
• AI and swarm intelligence control applications;
• Ground testing of formation flying control algorithms;
• Distributed space systems mission design.

Dr. Danil Ivanov
Guest Editor

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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.

• small satellite formation flying
• constellation deployment
• attitude dynamics
• control algorithms
• electromagnetic interaction
• differential drag control
• motion simulation
• ground testing
• mission design