Flight of Dynamic Targeting on the CogniSAT-6 Spacecraft

Abstract: Dynamic targeting (DT) is a spacecraft autonomy concept in which sensor data is acquired and rapidly analyzed and used to drive subsequent observation. We describe the low Earth orbit application of this approach in which lookahead imagery is analyzed to detect clouds, thermal anomalies, or land use cases to drive higher quality near nadir imaging. Use cases for such a capability include: cloud avoidance, storm hunting, search for planetary boundary layer events, plume study, and beyond. The DT concept requires a lookahead sensor or agility to use a primary sensor in such a mode, edge computing to analyze images rapidly onboard, and a primary followup sensor. Additionally, an inter-satellite or low latency communications link can be leveraged for cross platform tasking. We describe implementation in progress to fly DT in early 2025 on the CogniSAT-6 (Ubotica/Open Cosmos) spacecraft that launched in March 2024 on the SpaceX Transporter-10 launch.