DSSL has long been committed to the research of distributed space system dynamics and control, and has made important breakthroughs in the long-term maintenance of satellite constellations and formations, self-organizing control of mega-constellations and boundary method for satellite clusters. For long-term maintenance of satellite constellations and formation flying, an analytical model corresponding to satellite relative motions was proposed, long-period variations, short-period variations, and secular variations were established. For mega-constellations, self-organizing control mechanism was investigated to enable single satellite organizes its own behavior, and coordinates with each other to form the desired formation movement. Furthermore, an autonomous bounded flight control method is proposed by means of artificial potential functions so that bounded flight and collision avoidance can be achieved.

  In the evaluation model and joint estimation of the atmospheric density and gravity field, orbit determination at a centimeter-level accuracy is required for advanced measurement. Tsinghua Science Satellite (Q-Sat), a small satellite developed by DSSL, was launched into space on August 6, 2020. The satellite has a mass of  21.2kg and its initial orbit height is about 499.3km. The mission of the Q-Sat is atmospheric density measurement and Earth gravity field recovery. Utilizing precise orbital data of the satellite in orbit, the J71 atmospheric density model was modified to reduce the short- and medium-term atmospheric density forecast error to within 10% of the true atmospheric density value. By the inversion of precise orbit determination, the gravity field recovery reaches order of 30.