Archives for October 2019

A University of Washington satellite smaller than a loaf of bread will, if all goes well, launch shortly on its way to LEO — this will be the first student-built satellite from Washington state to go into space.

Team members Paige Northway, Anika Hidayat, John Correy and Eli Reed (back row, left to right) watch in June as Henry Martin of Nanoracks does a “fit test” to ensure that the satellite fits inside the silver box. The digital clock on the wall counts down the days, minutes and seconds until launch. Photo is courtesy of Dennis Wise/University of Washington.

HuskySat-1 is one of seven student-built satellites from around the country scheduled to launch at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time Saturday, November 2, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast.

HuskySat-1’s last moments on Earth will be broadcast live on NASA TV. The satellites are hitching a ride on the Cygnus cargo spacecraft, whose first stop will be the International Space Station to resupply astronauts and swap out materials. In early 2020, the spacecraft will leave the station and fly up to an altitude of about 310 miles (500 kilometers), where a NASA engineer will eject the student-build satellites.

The UW creation is a type of cubesat, a smallsat that measures exactly 10 centimeters (about 3 inches) along each side. HuskySat-1 is a “three-unit” system, meaning it’s the shape of a stack of three cubesat-sized blocks.

HuskySat-1 sits under protection in the UW satellite lab in June, as it prepared to leave on its journey to Virginia and then to LEO Photo is courtesy of Dennis Wise/University of Washington.

These miniature satellites were first created as a way for engineering students to test software with smaller, cheaper devices they could build from start to finish in a few years. However, the devices are growing in popularity, with Planet and other companies now using smallsats for a variety of commercial ventures.

NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative helps students and nonprofit groups launch these instrument systems into space. The Washington State University satellite, CougSat-1, is scheduled to launch in October 2020.

The UW satellite weighs just under 7 pounds (3.14 kilograms) and required five years to design and build. Undergraduate and graduate students from aeronautics and astronautics, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, Earth and space sciences, physics and other departments spent hundreds of hours building the system in the Husky Satellite Lab.

White lines show the satellite’s projected travel path, orbiting at an angle of 51.6 degrees from the equator. The antennas at the UW will be able to communicate with HuskySat-1 when it flies inside the red circle. Image is courtesy of Paige Northway/University of Washington.

Its trip into low-Earth orbit is organized by Nanoracks, a Texas company that, like Spaceflight Industries of Seattle and other businesses, coordinates smaller groups to provide access to launch vehicles. HuskySat-1 will orbit at an angle of 51.6 degrees, traveling between 51.6 degrees north and south, at an altitude of 310 miles (500 kilometers) and at more than 4 miles (7 kilometers) per second. Once the students locate their satellite, they will be able to predict its travel path.

After extensive testing and final checkouts this summer, the satellite was hand-delivered to the Nanoracks facility in Houston, where it was placed into the box that will carry it to space.

Three antennas installed on the roof of Johnson Hall will allow students to get information like position and altitude and send instructions to the satellite as it passes overhead. A camera built in collaboration with students at Raisbeck Aviation High School in Tukwila, Washington, will send back grainy, black-and-white photos of Earth. Students will also be able to control the satellite’s camera and thruster remotely.

Robert Winglee, a professor of Earth and space sciences and the team’s faculty adviser as director of the UW Advanced Propulsion Lab, said these students have gained firsthand experience on what is required to build and launch a satellite and aerospace companies have already snapped up many of them. Meanwhile, the UW is making its first steps to a continuing hardware presence in space. What more could anyone wish for?

Paige Northway, a UW doctoral student in Earth and Space Sciences who has been involved since the project’s inception, added that it will be exciting once it’s in orbit. To her, the completion will be when we data is received from the satellite and are returned to the spacecraft.

Team member Anika Hidayat, a senior in mechanical engineering, noted that a lot of information is taught in classes, but only in a hands-on environment can you experience things like design, integration of subsystems, project management and documentation.

Some of the student-built parts will still be in test mode. A custom-built thruster uses sparks to vaporize small amounts of solid sulfur as a propellant. The thruster will fire about 100 times as the satellite passes over Seattle, only enough thrust to provide a slight nudge. A high-bandwidth communications system built by former graduate student Paul Sturmer, now at Blue Origin, transmits at 24 Gigahertz, allowing the satellite to quickly send reams of data. That system will send down a test packet from space.

The UW group will control HuskySat-1 for three months. In the spring, it will transfer ownership and responsibility to AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, which provided the main communication system. The satellite will begin to lose altitude in about three years and will burn up as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere. (NASA requires that all such objects de-orbit within 25 years.)

HuskySat-1 grew out of a special topics course in the UW Department of Earth & Space Sciences. In 2016 members formed a registered student organization, the Husky Satellite Lab at UW.

As the Husky Satellite Lab wraps up this half-decade-long effort it plans to next tackle a NanoLab project — a partly prebuilt system that can be adapted to conduct experiments in microgravity — for travel aboard a Blue Origin vehicle. Students plan to complete that project by spring of 2020.

HuskySat-1 was supported by a NASA Undergraduate Student Instrument Project award, which funded the satellite’s development and launch with a private space contractor. The team also was supported by NASA, the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium, the UW and several companies that provided equipment for the satellite and antenna.

Article source: Journalist Hannah Hickey, University of Washington News

Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) and German Aerospace Center (DLR) have signed an MOU for the development of test facilities for micro launcher engine and stage tests.

The agreement will include exchanging facilities, knowledge and staff, providing Europe with the infrastructure for the entire range of rocket tests, including early stage “higher risk” tests, as well as increasing the capacity to provide for more companies to test their products.

The MOU was signed by Stefan Schlechtriem, Director of the DLR Institute of Space Propulsion (left) and Stefan Gardefjord, CEO of SSC (right), at the recent International Astronautical Congress (IAC).

Photo is courtesy of the companies.

Through this collaboration, the testing capabilities at Lampoldshausen in Germany and Esrange Space Center in Sweden can be optimized.

Stefan Gardefjord, CEO SSC, said there has been a shortage of suitable test sites for early stage and short preparation tests for the next generation of sounding rockets, micro launchers and reusable rockets. By combining the firm’s testing capabilities with DLR, SSC can provide Europe with more testing capability, thus strengthening the development of European space programs.

Professor Stefan Schlechtriem, Director of the DLR-Institute of Space Propulsion, added that the organization has found the correct partner for the joint planning and implementation of a test stand for hybrid and liquid-fuel engines at Esrange Space Center (ESC). DLR Lampoldshausen is contributing its unique expertise as a European testing and development location for all liquid chemical space engines to the development of the next generation of engines. This collaboration will enable us to bring together the expertise of the institutions. With the intensified cooperation between SSC and DLR, the two partners will provide the infrastructure in Europe for the entire range of engine tests, including tests at an early stage of development, thus increasing the portfolio of testing opportunities in Europe.

Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc. (NYSE American: GSAT) has announced that the company’s FindMy IoT animal tracking pioneer has launched its next-generation tracker — the FindMy e-Bell Model 2 collar is more robust, smaller and lighter, and now features Bluetooth for easy set-up and a longer-life replaceable battery for lower maintenance.

As FindMy marks its 10 year partnership with Globalstar, and with more than 45,000 collars deployed in the field, FindMy collars have transmitted 20 million IoT tracking messages by satellite, enabled by Globalstar’s STX3 chipset and its worldwide fleet of LEO satellites. This data allows farmers to reliably monitor and protect their valuable herds wherever they roam, including regions beyond the reach of mobile phone networks.

The appeal of FindMy is such that it has even attracted customers whose farms are in locations with good mobile coverage – this is due to the price competitiveness of FindMy’s satellite-enabled solution, and the highly functional and user-friendly app and user interface which FindMy provides.

FindMy has spent the last two years designing and engineering the new animal collar, which will be available from Spring 2020. Additional new features include a custom antenna that adds extra assurance of successful message transmission, and a new app that makes it easy for farmers to configure and customize the collar’s transmission settings. The e-Bell Mark 2 is easily self-configurable for farmers and the new industrial-grade FindMy devices are engineered to meet military-level SATCOM standards for robustness in all weather conditions.

Enhanced software can now deliver a complete snapshot update of the herd/flock location at particular times of day specified by the farmer dependent on when they head out to the hills to check on the animals. The system also includes an improved accelerometer sensitive enough to detect whether an animal is in distress, such as if it is frightened or being chased.

The STX3’s small size, ruggedness, long battery life, and ease of integration, as well as its competitive price, remain key compelling features for FindMy. It makes it possible for farmers to geo-fence livestock, helping them to monitor animals to ensure they graze only in designated areas, and to locate those that have escaped or are injured.

It also enables farmers to optimize their stock, ensure the animals have adequate food and water, while mitigating against disease and predation. FindMy’s data trail empowers farmers to analyze areas of best grazing and they can proactively manage grazing for future seasons.

FindMy’s custom user interface alerts farmers and herd managers when an animal has not moved for some time. With FindMy’s GPS data, they can identify exactly where to go to investigate, saving valuable time and resources. Farmers deploying the collars report a significant reduction in animal loss, with a consequent direct positive impact on their business.

Norwegian sheep farmer Halvor Mjoen originally founded FindMy in 2009 to support his fellow sheep farmers whose flocks graze fence-free in the mountains and often range across borders into Sweden, Finland as well as Russia. In addition to monitoring sheep, FindMy has also been adopted by reindeer-herders, many with ancestral heritage from the indigenous Sami communities in the far North, whose livestock range across the Arctic Circle. FindMy’s reputation has further grown internationally and the system is now used as far away as on cattle ranches in South America.

Mjoen said the company’s success was resultant of listening carefully to customers, understanding their everyday operations, their pain points and working to deliver what they really need. The company’s close partnership with Globalstar, with its reliable, functional and cost-effective satellite technology, has played a huge role in the firm’s achievements.

Mark O’Connell, Globalstar EMEA GM noted that FindMy is a perfect example of design, engineering and industrial creativity, and amply demonstrates how satellite technology and the Internet of Things can be harnessed to powerfully solve real world problems. The company congratulates FindMy on its next-generation solution that will help more farmers improve the welfare of their livestock, and enhance their businesses, across the Nordic region and beyond.

Smallsat manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) has been selected by NASA’s Ames Research Center to support a technology demo mission called Starling under NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program.

Under the contract agreement, BCT will design, manufacture and provide engineering support during commissioning for four, flight qualified, 6U cubesats.

The goal of the Starling mission will be to prove the capability of affordable, distributed spacecraft missions, or large aggregations called “swarms,” in LEO. Starling is expected to launch in mid-2021. (The starling bird is famous for flying in swarm formations.)

As smallsats increase in accuracy and capabilities, flight-qualifying swarm technology benefits the industry by offering access to low cost, highly capable platforms that can operate from the near-Earth to the deep space environments.

BCT is currently building more than 60 spacecraft for government, commercial and academic missions. The company has doubled in size over the past 12 months and plans to open their new, 80,000 thousand square foot headquarters and production facility in 2020.

Nick Monahan, Systems engineer at BCT, said that ultimately, swarm technology will enable a new way to explore the vastness of space, as well as the complexity of the solar system.
 

Building effective propulsion systems for satellites has traditionally been a highly bespoke affair, with expensive, one-off systems tailor-made to big, expensive spacecraft hardware. But increasingly, companies, including startups, are looking at ways to provide propulsion tech that can scale with the projected boom in demand for orbital satellites, including CubeSats and small sats, as the commercialization of space and advances in sensor, communication and launch technology broaden the scope of those working in this bold new frontier.

Morpheus Space, which began life as a research project at the University of Western Germany, has accomplished a lot when it comes to propulsion in the short time since its official founding around a year and a half ago. The Dresden-based startup already has sent some of its thrusters to space, where they’re actually providing propulsion, and it’s working with a number of clients and potential clients, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The startup also just wrapped up its participation in Techstars’ inaugural Starburst Space Program in LA.

A single Morpheus NanoFEEP thruster propulsion system

“Our motivation behind starting Morpheus Space was the lack of maneuverability of, especially small satellites in space,” explained Morpheus CEO and co-founder Daniel Bock, with whom I spoke at last week’s International Astronautical Congress in Washington, D.C. “We have around 2,000 active satellites in space, and in the next few years this will increase by 10x. We have to deal with that. So the first step in how we want to solve that is with our proportion systems, to give mobility to small satellites.”

The startup has seen a ton of inbound interest, and has even had conversations with the CTO of NASA and the CEO of Aerospace Corporation based on the strength of its technology. But what’s so special about what they’re doing, versus what has already been available for satellite propulsion? Put simply, “it’s the world’s smallest and most efficient propulsion system,” according to Morpheus Space co-founder István Lorincz.

Morpheus’ thruster uses gallium as its fuel source, which allows it to be very efficient, with an operating linespace of up to three or more years — non-stop, Lorincz told me. When you factor in the low cost of these thrusters versus other solutions, and the ability to make them incredibly small (one thruster, along with electronics, is not that much larger than your average USB charger), you get a product that’s tailor-made for the cost-sensitive emerging new space industry. Ensuring the mass of these thrusters is small pays off big dividends when it comes to thinking about launch costs, and the fact that these are “Lego-like” in their modularity means they can suit a variety of different clients’ needs.

“You can build propulsion systems for satellites that are below one kilogram, up to those the size of trucks, just by creating arrays,” Lorincz says.

An example of a Morpheus multi-thruster array used in a 3U-sized
small satellite

Size is important, but so is scalability, and that’s another strength that the Morpheus thrusters bring to the market. Lőrincz told me that their technology allows you to quickly and easily build a large batch of the thrusters, instead of having to tailor-make your propulsion system to fit the satellite, which provides big benefits in terms of manufacturing and design costs — which Morpheus can then pass on to its customers, opening up to a whole new, much more price-sensitive segment of the market the possibility of including true orbital maneuvering capabilities.

Next up for Morpheus Space, after it gets its hardware business fully up and running, is to develop and deploy software that complements its thrusters and can offer clients things like fully automated route planning and navigation, Bock told me.

“For example, you can imagine you just have to command ‘Okay I want to go from A to B,’ and everything is handled on board,” he said. So when and how you turn, all the routing. And the next step will be an automated way of handling whole constellations.”

It’s a big goal, but there’s a big potential pay-off. More and more companies are getting into the constellation game, including SpaceX and Amazon, and there’s a lot more to come on that front as companies build out new use cases for collecting and making use of data gathered from orbit. Orbital traffic management and collision avoidance is one reason big industry groups like the Space Safety Coalition are being formed, and anyone who can help supply with a solution players at all budget levels of the industry stands to benefit.

By Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch

EchoStar Global L.L.C., a subsidiary of  EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) (“EchoStar”), has acquired Helios Wire Corporation (“Helios”), a satellite-enabled IoT connectivity company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada — the acquisition includes Helios’ Australian subsidiaries Sirion Holdings Pty Ltd. and Sirion Global Pty Ltd. (“Sirion Global”).

Sirion Global holds global spectrum rights for S-band Mobile Satellite Service (MSS), administered by Australia, and has been working to develop solutions for high volume asset tracking and monitoring applications by satellite. The acquisition occurred by way of a court approved plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia). 

Anders Johnson, Chief Strategy Officer, EchoStar, noted that this acquisition advances the company’s strategy and further lays the foundation for a global S-band solution for the future. EchoStar’s aim is to develop S-band technologies that will dramatically reduce the cost of satellite IoT, including Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) and other end-to-end services worldwide. Over time, EchoStar products and services will be integrated into the new global, hybrid networks that leverage multiple satellites and terrestrial technologies. This acquisition of Helios and Sirion Global positions us closer to realizing that vision.

Raghu Das, Co-Founder and COO, Helios, said the firm’s shareholders are pleased to have concluded the sale of Helios and the Sirion subsidiaries to EchoStar, which has a wealth of S-band experience in the United States and Europe and is the perfect operator to take this project forward and accelerate the build-out of the Sirion constellation and deployment of global IoT services.

Eutelsat Communications (Paris:ETL) has launched Eutelsat IoT FIRST.

Having recently unveiled its ELO constellation of smallsats in LEO that are dedicated to IoT, Eutelsat has taken further steps toward their ambition to become a leading satellite IoT company through the launch of Eutelsat IoT FIRST, a fully integrated IoT connectivity service operating in Ku-band via Eutelsat’s geostationary satellites. Targeted companies include selected satellite service providers, telecom operators and IoT service providers. At a price point proposed on a par with cellular-based IoT connectivity services, Eutelsat IoT FIRST integrates satellite terminals, space and ground segments, packaged within an API-based service delivery framework.

With this product, Eutelsat is further addressing the connectivity challenges of industries spanning across retail, banking and security, through to energy, mining and agriculture, which seek a cost-effective and reliable IoT solution to connect their fixed assets, irrespective of their location. Eutelsat IoT FIRST also acts as an IoT backhaul service, enabling telecom operators to connect IoT base stations and gateways to their core network. Focusing currently on treating fixed assets, as of next year Eutelsat will then expand its portfolio of IoT services to incorporate the connectivity of mobile assets.

The ground infrastructure designed to serve Eutelsat IoT FIRST consists of a network of IoT-specific hubs hosted at teleports across the globe. These hubs are monitored and controlled 24/7 by Eutelsat’s service delivery team from Turin, Italy.

Luis Jimenez-Tunon, Group EVP, Data Business, of Eutelsat said the reliability and boundless reach that satellite offers means that it will have an integral role in the IoT sector and in this regard, “Eutelsat IoT FIRST” has been launched, named in the honor of this service being a pioneer of its kind and Eutelsat’s inaugural solution in its ambitious IoT roadmap.

In anticipation of the launch of IOD-3 Amber in 2020, Horizon Technologies and the UK Satellite Applications Catapult held an Amber Users’ Workshop in Rome, Italy, on October 9, 2019 — the workshop addressed Italian maritime intelligence requirements and was organized by Horizon Technologies, the Satellite Applications Catapult, the UK Department for International Trade (DIT), and the Defence & Security Organization (DSO).

The event was chaired by the UK Defence Attaché Colonel Simon Lawrence and was attended by delegates from 13 different Italian government services/agencies.

The purpose of the workshop was to introduce Amber capabilities to the relevant Italian Government agencies and to facilitate the transfer of Amber data to these Italian agencies as soon as the IOD-3 Amber, the first Amber smallsat, is operational next year. There was a classified session to discuss the most sensitive of the datasets which will be provided.

Together with the UK Government, Horizon Technologies and the Satellite Applications Catapult will be responding to customer requests and will be holding a series of monthly country and regional Amber users’ workshops up until the first Amber-1 launch in 2020, and beyond.

The Horizon Technologies team was also supported by UK SME, LN Systems in Lincoln who is a subcontractor to Horizon Technologies for the Amber Processing Center(s).

Horizon Technologies CEO John Beckner stated that the quality of the attendees, and the level of technical discussion, was outstanding. In addition, the company couldn’t have been more pleased with the organization and wonderful venue for this workshop. The support provided by the UK Government DIT/DSO team in Italy as well as the Satellite Applications Catapult was unmatched, and essential to the success of the workshop.There will be an ongoing technical dialog with the Italian Government over the next 12 months until Amber achieves operational status. Amber will play a key role assisting Italy with its current EU/NATO missions around the world, and in the Mediterranean Sea; especially the migrant/refugee problem.

Gary Goodrum, Horizon Technologies CTO , added that every country has their own interface requirements to their maritime domain awareness platforms and it’s important to have these discussions as soon as possible before the data comes online. 

Dr. Chris Brunskill, Head of Access to Space at the Satellite Applications Catapult, noted that the company is excited to be working with Horizon Technologies to explore and develop the SIGINT market using satellite-based data. The IOD Program has allowed us to provide a dedicated spacecraft platform and mission solution to quickly and responsively support the Horizon team in capturing this commercial opportunity.