A review of Smart Dust architecture, dynamics, and mission applications

A Smart Dust is a propellantless femtosatellite, with a characteristic side length of a few millimeters and a high value of its area-to-mass ratio. It exploits the solar radiation pressure to create a propulsive acceleration sufficient enough to substantially affect its orbital dynamics. A number of new mission concepts may thus be envisaged, where the Smart Dust is either used as a single spacecraft or, more often, within a swarm of objects that communicate and exchange information among them. This paper discusses the state of the art of the Smart Dust concept, which has received a major boost by the rise of small satellite market and by the new manufacturing technologies of miniaturized electric and mechanical components. After a general description of the basic architecture of a Smart Dust, this work concentrates on the analysis of its dynamics in both heliocentric and geocentric mission scenarios, and highlights the different available approaches. An overview of possible mission applications is presented, and potential future developments and technological challenges are investigated.