NetSat: Four satellites in formation at an altitude of 600km.

Four NetSat smallsats will autonomously control — for the first time — a three-dimensional configuration in space to enable new observation methods for climate research as well as for innovative future telecommunication systems.

To capture an object without blind spots, it needs to be imaged from different directions and by sensor data fusion, from which information is then derived. In NetSat, four nano-satellites will demonstrate relevant techniques for optimum self-organization of a satellite formation in three-dimensional space. This opens new perspectives in Earth Observation (EO) as well as for future telecommunication networks. In addition, there are strategies for collision avoidance.

The four smallsats (each one possesses a mass of 4 kg) are currently being finalized at the research center Zentrum für Telematik (ZfT) in Würzburg (Germany. In August of 2020, they will be delivered to orbit via a Russian Soyuz-rocket at a 600 km altitude.

The objectives of NetSat are to produce scientific breakthroughs for control of the three-dimensional configuration to provide optimum observation conditions. For this purpose, each satellite carries a highly efficient, electric propulsion system (developed by the Austrian company, Enpulsion) and a high-precision attitude control system composed of extremely small and power-efficient reaction wheels (from S4–Smart Small Satellite Systems and Wittenstein Cyber Motors).

The telecommunication link between the satellites supports data exchange on position, attitude and planned maneuvers. In combination with advanced control methods, the coordination of these four smallsats can be realized. While the long-term task planning is done by the space control center in Würzburg, the reaction on deviations and the fine tuning of the formation is handled autonomously by the smallsats onboard software.

The NetSat mission is sponsored by an ERC Advanced Grant and by the Bavarian Ministry of Economics. In 2012, the European Research Council (ERC) honored Prof. Dr. Klaus Schilling with the highly valued European research award to promote scientific pioneer research in space technology and control systems. The independent research, institute Zentrum für Telematik (ZfT) in Würzburg, was selected as the host institution for NetSat due to that organization’s outstanding test infrastructure for multi-satellite systems. (https://erc.europa.eu/projects-figures/stories/small-cooperative-future-spacecraft-systems )

The NetSat results will be directly transferred to the follow-up smallsat Eo missions: TIM – Telematics International Mission:

• The ZfT coordinates, within the RLS partnership from 5 continents, the implementation and use of 9 satellites for innovative 3D-EO for volcano eruptions, earthquakes and environment monitoring. (launch expected in 2021; www.rls-sciences.org/small-satellites.html)
• In CloudCT, the self-organization of 10 smallsats will be used to characterize, via computed tomography methods, the interior of clouds, obtaining… for the first time… important parameters for climate models. (launch expected to occur in 2022; cordis.europa.eu/project/id/810370)

Measurement networks composed of smallsats will provide quickly improved decision support for emergency situations as well as address challenges in climate change.

Integration of a NetSat satellite at Zentrum für Telematik.

Virgin Orbit has announced that their Launch Demo mission starts on Sunday, May 24th, and extends through Monday, May 25th, with an opportunity to launch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Pacific (17:00 – 21:00 GMT), each day.

The 747 carrier aircraft Cosmic Girl will prepare to take off from Mojave Air and Space Port, fly out over the Pacific ocean and release our two-stage, orbital rocket, LauncherOne — which will then proceed to ignite its engine in mid-air for the first time.

This Launch Demo marks the apex of a five-year-long development program. On this journey to open up space for everyone, Virgin Orbit has conducted hundreds of hotfires of the engines and the rocket stages, performed two dozen test flights with the carrier aircraft and conducted countless other tests of every bit of the system that could be tested on the ground.

Launching from the Earth to space is difficult — thousands of components all need to function as planned, while controlling high energy and flying at incredibly fast speeds. The vehicle’s structures must be robust enough to tolerate traveling at up to 18,000 mph without disintegrating; the temperatures and pressures of its propellants can’t be too high or too low; every internal valve must click open and closed in perfect synchronicity…  there’s a long list of factors that need to line up in order to make it all the way. The company is mindful of the fact that for the governments and companies who have preceded us in developing spaceflight systems, maiden flights have statistically ended in failure about half of the time.

In the future, the goal of the launches will be to deploy satellites for a new generation of space-based services. For this Launch Demo, though, the goal is to safely learn as much as possible and prove out the LauncherOne system the company has worked so hard to design, build, test and operate.

The instant the Newton Three engine ignites, Virgin Orbit will have done something no one has ever done before — lighting an orbital-class, liquid-fueled, horizontally-launched vehicle in flight. If LauncherOne reaches an altitude of 50 miles on this mission, it will be the first time this kind of launch system has reached space.

The mission will continue for as long as possible. The longer LauncherOne flies, the more data can be able to collect. Should the historical odds be defied and if this becomes one of those exceedingly rare teams to complete a mission on first attempt, the company will deploy a test payload into an orbit, take the data and then quickly de-orbit so as not to clutter the heavens.

For near real-time updates, follow the company on Twitter (@Virgin_Orbit).

IOD-1 GEMS 3U demonstration satellite deployed on July 3, 2019.

Orbital Micro Systems (OMS) has entered into collaboration with the University of Colorado-Boulder’s Mortenson Center in Global Engineering (MCGE) for their Drought Resilience Impact Platform (DRIP) program — as part of the relationship, OMS will provide Earth Observation (EO) data collected by its Global Earth Monitoring System (GEMS) satellites to the effort.

DRIP gathers daily information, enabling scientists and engineers to monitor the water supply serving some three million people in East Africa. Using multiple data sources, DRIP provides critical information on drought conditions and trends which affect food security, health, safety, and other critical issues throughout the region.

GEMS uses highly optimized microwave radiometers to passively measure atmospheric temperature and moisture content from small satellites operating in low earth orbit (LEO.) A single GEMS satellite observes the entire surface of the earth approximately two and one-half times each day. In addition, GEMS data enhances the information gathered from IoT sensors and ground-based monitoring points, enabling DRIP to deliver more detailed information to a region’s decision makers.

Dr. Evan Thomas, Director, MCGE and CU associate professor, said the observations received from OMS will not only help a better understanding of the conditions on the ground in East Africa, but will also enable DRIP to monitor drought conditions in other regions, including the United States. In addition, OMS brings expertise in data science and engineering which will help support DRIP’s core mission to characterize environmental, weather, and climate parameters in all the covered geographies.

Michael Hurowitz, OMS CTO, added that empowering solutions that impact global welfare and productivity are core principles of OMS, and the firm is delighted to be a part of the continuing DRIP success. As OMS continues building out the GEMS constellation of satellites, the company anticipates gathering live observations for any point on Earth at intervals of one hour or less. Delivering observed weather data at this level of temporal frequency has—until this point—never been possible. These frequent intervals will empower systems such as DRIP to easily expand to new regions while enhancing the platform’s performance.

GEMS EO datasets are available to download for evaluation from the website.

Kleos Space (ASX: KSS, Frankfurt: KS1) has been awarded a contract to prepare Kleos data to be accessed by the Micro-Satellite Military Utility (MSMU Project) Project Arrangement (PA), which is an agreement under the Responsive Space Capabilities Memorandum of Understanding involving the Departments and Ministries of Defense of Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, United Kingdom and United States.

The MSMU Project aims to develop a blueprint for a Multinational Heterogeneous Space Enterprise (ISR Enterprise), to provide military users with reliable access to a broad spectrum of information in an opportunistic environment. The MSMU Project is building the architecture and infrastructure to enable machine intelligence, including automation, human-machine teaming, and ultimately, artificial intelligence; these initiatives will define how the ISR Enterprise executes operations.

The program is coordinated by the Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) in collaboration with the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Kleos’ Scouting Mission satellites that are in Chennai, India, awaiting launch on Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) PSLV C49, will detect and geolocate maritime radio frequency transmissions to provide global activity-based intelligence, enhancing the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities of governments and commercial entities when Automatic Identification System (AIS) is defeated, imagery unclear or targets out of patrol range.

Kleos’ satellites will be in a 37-degree inclination.

Andy Bowyer

Andy Bowyer, the company’s CEO, commented  that his opportunity delivered by the team; Peter Round and Karyn Hayes-Ryan, is a great achievement and validation for the company. The firm is seeing increasing demand for Kleos’ global geolocation intelligence data, which will enhance the ISR capabilities of governments and commercial entities.

Karyn
Hayes-Ryan

Karyn Hayes-Ryan, Director noted that the company’s satellites and data will enhance defense capabilities when fused with other data sets in the Government environment, as well as providing timely monitoring of illegal fishing, oil embargoes and other illicit action that both damages the environment and hurts economies.

Roccor created a deployable L-band antenna that makes possible the reception and transmission of Link 16 signals via spacecraft.
Image is courtesy of Blue Canyon Technologies.

Roccor has created a deployable L-band antenna that makes possible the reception and transmission of Link 16 signals via spacecraft.

The project is in partnership with Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) and the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate and is part of the world’s first-ever, Link 16-capable, LEO spacecraft demonstration mission called XVI, which will launch later this year.

Roccor’s helical, two-meter-long deployable RF aperture, will be extended and supported on-orbit by Roccor’s slit-tube composite ROC™ boom, a product the company has successfully demonstrated in space on three other antenna systems for top-tier military customers.

A Roccor deployable boom.

According to Davis, the widely proliferated Link 16 tactical communication network is the preferred choice of U.S. Department of Defense customers and a number of NATO allies for communication between ships, aircraft, maritime vessels, and troops operating at the tactical edge.

Bruce Davis, Roccor’s Director of Space Antenna and De-orbit Products, stated this will significantly broaden the Link 16 tactical communications network capabilities. Viasat came to the company with a hard problem and a tight timeframe. They needed robust broadband capabilities – ‘big ears’ – to enable communications across a range of frequencies and they wanted to demonstrate it on a small satellite platform that is easily scalable to constellation-class missions. The Roccor solution extends the range of Link 16 networks, substantially enhancing situational awareness and mission capabilities for U.S. military personnel operating across the global battlespace.

Mark Lake, Roccor’s CTO, noted that the Link 16 antenna development program is a success story the company shares with the XVI mission customer, Viasat, and the firm’s technology development sponsor, AFRL. Roccor’s satellite antenna portfolio has grown from years of investment in simple, low-cost deployment mechanism technologies – like the ROC™ boom system used to deploy the Link 16 antenna – that are revolutionizing deployment systems for constellation missions. The upcoming XVI antenna deployment comes on the heels of decades of research and development and millions of dollars of investment into high-strain composite deployment systems starting in the early 2000s at AFRL and reduced to flight-certified products at Roccor over the past five years.

According to Lake, Roccor won an additional $3 million contract through Space and Missile Systems Center and AFRL space pitch day last fall to evolve the current Link 16 demonstration mission antenna into a production-ready design capable of serving the needs of upcoming constellation providers starting in 2021.

Late last year, Ken Peterman, President, Government Systems, Viasat, said that Roccor’s antenna will be vital to the success of the XVI program. This Link-16 capable Low Earth Orbit spacecraft will address the Department of Defense’s urgent need for a fast-to-market, cost-effective, space-based Link 16 solution that will help our forces maintain the technological edge needed across today’s battlespace.

Harris Corporation launched their first smallsat – HSAT1 – with Roccor booms onboard.

An artistic rendition of a HEMERIA constellation smallsat.
Image is courtesy of Kinéis.

NewSpace Systems (NSS), the manufacturer of “lean”, high-quality space components and sub-systems, has been down-selected by the Hemeria team to provide several of the ADCS products for the Kinéis constellation.

This constellation of smallsats will be dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT).

The South African company design and manufacture a range of components and sub-systems from both its facilities in South Africa and the United Kingdom. Particularly strong in the area of Attitude Control Systems, NewSpace predominantly focuses on the smallsat market.

NSS CEO James Barrington-Brown said the company is excited to announce that with the successful completion of the EQSR last month, the NSS team is now working closely with the Hemeria team on the qualification phase for this program.

The NewSpace Systems’ Dark Room, which contains an artificial sun for the testing of their Fine Sun Sensors forms part of the NewSpace ISO-7 certified (Class 10,000) Clean Room.
Photo is courtesy of NewSpace Systems.

VOX Space, the Virgin Orbit subsidiary, has signed a new agreement with the Department of the Air Force, allowing the company’s LauncherOne system to conduct missions to space from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.

VOX Space President Mandy Vaughn and U.S. Air Force 36thWing Commander Brig. Gen. Gentry Boswell, signed the Commercial Space Operations Support Agreement (COSOSA) Annex in early April, setting the stage for the STP-27VP mission, VOX Space’s first launch from Andersen Air Force Base.

Virgin Orbit and VOX Space first expressed interest in launching from the Pacific island of Guam in mid-2019. Due to Guam’s low latitude and clear launch trajectories in almost all directions, the company’s uniquely mobile LauncherOne system can effectively serve all orbital inclinations, such as delivering up to 450 kg to a 500 km equatorial orbit. 

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP) procured the STP-27VP launch with VOX Space under the Rapid Agile Launch Initiative (RALI), leveraging the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Other Transaction Agreement. One of the first missions to fly on LauncherOne, the STP-27VP manifest consists of several CubeSats from various government agencies performing experiments and technology demonstrations for the DoD. 

As the system is not tied to a traditional ground-based launch site, LauncherOne will leverage key locations around the world including Guam to provide responsive and affordable flights to space for a broad variety of customers. Even now, VOX Space and Virgin Orbit are working closely with multiple allied governments and international organizations interested in establishing launch capabilities closer to home. 

After successfully demonstrating all major vehicle assemblies and completing an extensive flight test program, the Virgin Orbit team is in the midst of final preparations for an orbital launch demonstration expected soon. 

Ms. Vaughn said the company is grateful to Brig. Gen. Deanna Burt and her team at HQ USSF/S3, as well as Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Boswell, Vice Commander Col. Matthew Nicholson, and all of the excellent airmen and women of the 36thWing and Pacific Air Forces for their support,” said VOX Space President Mandy Vaughn.  “Lt. Gen. John Thompson and his team at the Space and Missile Systems Center have also provided visionary leadership throughout this process. We’re very excited to demonstrate the flexibility and mobility that only LauncherOne can offer.” 

Artistic rendition of the AERO and VISTA smallsats.

NanoAvionics has received a contract to build two nanosatellites for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AERO-VISTA mission team at the recently opened NanoAvionics manufacturing facility in Columbia, Illinois, USA.

Funded by NASA’s H-TIDeS (Heliophysics Technology and Instrument Development for Science program), the mission is led by MIT and includes several partners: MIT Haystack Observatory, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Merrimack College, Dartmouth College, and Morehead State University. Morehead State is responsible for bus contracting and ground operations services.

The two identical spacecraft: AERO (Auroral Emissions Radio Observer) and VISTA (Vector Interferometry Space Technology with AERO) will be based on NanoAvionics’ standardized pre-integrated and pre-qualified 6U nanosatellite bus M6P. Both will house a novel electromagnetic vector sensor antenna developed by MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory.

The aim of this first in-space demonstration is to study from an LEO unexplained features about the nature and sources of radio emission from the Earth’s aurora. With a targeted launch in 2022, the AERO-VISTA mission is expected to last three months.

To accomplish the AERO-VISTA mission, the vector sensor onboard the two smallsats will measure amplitude and phase of radio emission in the Earth’s aurora zone – the geographic area above the Arctic Circle where the Northern Lights appear. Using a sun-synchronous polar orbit will allow sensing of radiation not visible from Earth.

In addition to their respective mission, coordinated observations by the pair will demonstrate interferometry, merging or superimposing waves to create an interference pattern from which information about the source can be extracted. Interference measures how two or more waves interact, akin to throwing stones into a calm pool. If successful and validated in flight, the expected result will produce higher-resolution data providing deeper insight into phenomena investigated by space-based radio telescopes.

According to Dr. Philip Erickson, principal investigator (PI) of AERO, the aim of the NASA-funded mission is to greatly improve knowledge of Earth’s aurora by studying its fascinating radio emissions from orbit. This is an ambitious task and takes a talented set of dedicated professionals to solve the many technical and science challenges of small satellite platforms. The resulting understanding of the near-Earth space environment benefits all who seek to learn about the natural world.

Dr. Frank Lind, VISTA PI, stated that, ultimately space science missions are about people exploring our world. It takes a great team of people to make that happen. NanoAvionics is now a key part of the team and all are looking forward to designing and building these satellites with them.

Dr. Benjamin K. Malphrus, professor of Space Science at Morehead State University and co-PI on the mission , added that the room for discovery in this area is wide open and there are many aspects of the aurora that are not well understood. The vector sensor antenna is unlike anything that has previously flown. It has the potential to produce significant science returns. He continued that after a long and competitive search process, the team selected NanoAvionics to provide the two satellite buses. NanoAvionics is an innovative company with a highly capable bus and was an excellent fit for this potentially significant science mission.

F. Brent Abbott, CEO of NanoAvionics US, stated that being part of this first-of-its-kind MIT research mission and working with such an august team is very exciting and the selection of NanoAvionics as the mission integrator shows the confidence in the company’s technology and strong performance of the firm’s nanosatellite buses.

NanoAvionics thermal vacuum testing of the company’s smallsats.

A new, independent study found that all 1,078 smallsats on commercial launches in the last five years experienced delays, with a median delay of 128 days.

What caused these delays? Bryce found that 40% of all smallsat delay days were attributed to delays in the primary payload and 34% were launch vehicle-related. Less than 1% of all smallsat delay days were caused by weather.

Learn more about mitigating smallsat launch delays in Bryce’s latest report, commissioned by Spaceflight, Inc., by downloading the company’s infographic at this direct link…

Bryce has also been selected as one of five companies to support NASA’s efforts to enable a LEO economy. Bryce will develop an integrated action plan to address barriers to the growth of the LEO economy, while other selected companies will seek to raise the technological readiness level of their products and move them to market.

Geospatial intelligence provider BlackSky is now offering remote access to the company’s global monitoring services and satellite imaging.

The company said its telework tools are cyber secure and allow analysts to develop intelligence reports and share unclassified information. Users of the BlackSky service draw intelligence from a combination of remote sensing satellite images, environmental sensors, asset tracking sensors, IoT systems, local foreign news, social media, industry publications and financial reports. The information is analyzed with machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques.

BlackSky’s telework package, called Spectra On-Demand Secure Bundle, was designed for intelligence analysts who handle unclassified but still sensitive information and can be accessed online from any computer.

BlackSky CEO, Brian O’Toole, noted that, given the coronavirus pandemic, intelligence analysts, financial analysts and researchers are seeking solutions that allow teams to continue critical security and intelligence projects while working remotely.

Scott Herman, BlackSky’s CTO, stated that a significant portion of our workforce works from home. We’ve been longtime adopters of a lot of these collaborative tools. Many of the company’s customers across U.S. national security and intelligence agencies are used to working in secure facilities. After the pandemic hit, suddenly they found themselves having to telework and realized they didn’t have remote access to data or tools needed to do their jobs, and they had security concerns, he said, adding that the company is providing access to the firm’s satellites for tasking as well as providing access to other satellites for tasking and archiving data plus a wide range of sensors used for global monitoring.The services also include training on the methodology involved in capturing data. Analysts still have to go to secure facilities to work with classified information but much of their unclassified work can be done from home.

BlackSky has four satellites in operation and plans to launch eight more satellites later this year.