Orbital edge computing

An orbital edge computing system for controlling a constellation of satellites comprising:

• a plurality of computational satellites forming a constellation,
• wherein each computational satellite of the constellation comprises a sensor and is configured to process data collected from the sensor,
• wherein the constellation forms a computational nanosatellite pipeline;
• a cote module present on each computational satellite of the plurality of computational satellites, the cote module comprising a simulation application and a runtime application,
• wherein the simulation application models interactions between computational nanosatellite pipeline configurations, data collection, and communication;
• and
• a ground station capable of intermittently communicating with a computational satellite in the constellation,
• wherein each computational satellite of the plurality of computational satellites initiates a process of utilizing the sensor or communicating with the ground station autonomously using the cote module.