Innovations in Small Satellites and On-Orbit Manufacturing

TripleSat Constellation

Credit: SSTL

Video from Low Earth Orbit

• Historically, providing video from space has been tricky:-

– Having enough satellite or sensor agility to keep a single location in view for the duration of a short pass (5-10 mins) has been challenging

– Spatial resolution has been low

– The data rates generated by the camera have posed issues for on-board storage, data downlink, or both

– Availability of ground stations for real-time control has been a problem

• But video from space is coming, enabled by improved bus technologies

The Carbonite Programme

Carbonite ‘s current capability• Low-cost, high-resolution rapid response

experimental EO mission

• Mass = 80kg

• Colour high definition video

• Direct delivery to users

• Designed and built in 7 months

• Carbonite-2 under construction(1-metre resolution – post-processed to 0.5-metre)

Carbonite ‘s future iterations• 0.5m to 1m resolution• Full colour, stills and HD video• 1400 images per day• 450s video per day• <50kg• 3 months to launch

Low-Elevation Mode Imaging

Multiple Imagery Collection Modes

Highly Agile Single Scene Imaging Extended Strip Imaging

In-pass Stereo Mode Imaging

Area Mode Imaging

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Super-Resolution Mode Imaging

Strip 1

Strip 2

Strip 3

Strip 4

Manoeuvre time

Manoeuvre time

Manoeuvre time

Line of CommunicationMode Imaging

Change DetectionMode Imaging

In-theatre Control Mode Imaging

High satellite agility enables a range of responsive modes of operation

NovaSAR S-band radar mission

SSTL Platform, 500kg satellite

Airbus SAR S-band Payload

Co-located AIS receiver

400 km swath mode for maritime

Up to 3-metre resolution

Uses: Maritime surveillance,

deforestation, & flood monitoring

6m resolution, forest6m resolution, Pembroke docks

On Board Processing

• Advanced on-board processing – To route communications traffic, and also

to process future surveillance satellite data, will increase capacity, improve cueing, and allow future systems to provide far greater capabilities

– On-orbit configurability of sensors

– Software Defined Radios (e.g. AIS, ADS-B, M2M communications etc)

– Image processing

• Advanced ground processing– Cloud processing, to permit the use of

lower cost spacecraft, optics and sensors

– Compensate for spacecraft imperfections

Urthecast

• Synergistic surveillance concept

• Eight pairs of satellites

• Each pair consists of one SAR and one optical satellite

• SAR carries AIS and a cloud sensor

• Inter-satellite link allows SAR to cue optical satellite to avoid clouds

Mothership Concept

• An experimental mission potentially including:-

• A primary satellite with a mass of approximately 150kg

• A secondary cube-sat satellite with a mass of approximately 5kg

• Both satellites would be equipped with an attitude control capability and the larger with an orbital manoeuvring capability

• The satellites would have an intersatellite communication link

Space Wide Web

• Optical inter-satellite links

can potentially offer both

much higher capacity and

greater communications

security than RF systems

European Data Relay Satellite

Optical ISL Concept

• Long range ISL systems

permit commanding and

data reception from LEO

spacecraft at any time

Improved Space Situation Awareness

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• Improvements to space situation awareness could include:-

– The tracking of smaller objects, (down to 1 cm in size)

– More frequent and more precise tracking in order to maintain more accurate orbits

– Assessments of hostile satellite configuration, operational status and current activity

– Warning of space weather events

• Tracking from orbit addresses several of these issues

• Launch detection from orbit is also a key capability

• A variety of technologies, including Mass drivers; Adhesives; Harpoons; Lasers; Tethers; Nets; Grapplers; Propulsion plumes; Slingsats; and De-orbit sails have been suggested to remove large, long-lived debris objects

• All these concepts are technically immature and look like anti-satellite weapons in the wrong hands

• It’s unclear how these concepts would be financed, and the politics is hard too

Harpoon concept

Grapplerconcept

Net concept

Mass driver concept

Adhesive concept

Slingsat concept

Propulsion plume concept

De-orbit sail concept

Tether concept

Debris Removal

Laser concept

Remove Debris Project• SSTL is contributing to an ESA programme that

aims to test net and harpoon technology in orbit

• The remove debris mission will release two test targets and then seek to re-capture them

Satellite Servicing Concept

• SSTL is currently working on a satellite servicing concept that is

designed to attach itself to the launch separation ring on the target

satellite

• Launched alongside a future GEO satellite, it could offer a variety of

different mission options

Assembly On Orbit

• Docking and rendezvous

technology will allow the assembly

of larger apertures on orbit

• Multiple linked mirror segments

could allow significantly improved

resolution

• These large apertures could be

used for both Earth observation and

astronomy

Space Debris As Fuel

• A team in Australia is developing a thruster that works by ionising metals (and carbon) and accelerating them

• Mass-drivers have also been suggested, which can utilise almost any type of debris

• In such a scenario, space debris becomes an on-orbit resource

• Space Traffic Control (STC) data on the location of suitable pieces of debris suddenly increases in value

Electric propulsion concept

Mass-driver concept

Thank You