Американские малые КА

[Salo]

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_07_30_2012_p36-478885.xml

Smallsats Growing In Utility
By Frank Morring, Jr.
Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology


July 30, 2012

Frank Morring, Jr. Washington

Small satellites, once the realm of one-off low-budget science missions and undergraduate engineering classes, have come full circle with the growing realization among hard-pressed, high-end users that the little birds can do the big jobs, too.

The smallest of them—cubesats—are rapidly evolving into an operational commercial, scientific and military technology. Higher up the payload-weight scale, the high cost per pound of launching payloads and the growing skill of spacecraft miniaturizers are making satellites that are small enough to ride as secondary payloads attractive to a variety of customers, particularly if they can be mass-produced or produced rapidly in single units.

The launch-cost consideration may change, as the growing interest in small spacecraft attracts a new generation of small launchers designed to carry them. And the spacecraft themselves are increasingly capable, with government money flowing into the arena in search of a way to do more with less.

"Fr om where we have been 10 years ago to where we are now is a complete 180," says Roland Coelho, a member of the research staff at California Polytechnic State University's engineering school, one of the main U.S. centers for cubesat development. "In the past it's been primarily educational. . . . As we have kind of grown—the entire community worldwide over the past decade—we really have started to see some niche markets where cubesats can play a vital role. It's clearly the most evident in the government cubesat programs that we have today. The government, and particularly the U.S. government, has been the driving force in this technology because that's where all the funding is."

Government interest in small satellites is not limited to cubesats, or even to spacecraft. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is spending $46 million to find ways to launch satellites weighing up to 100 lb. on 24-hr. notice for less than $1 million (see p. 44). And the Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office consider small satellites a way to lower risk in national security spacecraft by adding redundancy in orbit.

"Even if 20% of them failed, you'd still do your mission, so there's sort of a natural resiliency in using constellations of smaller satellites," says John Roth, whose company—Sierra Nevada Space Systems—makes small satellites for the military and others. "One of the advantages that the military recognizes also is, if we're worrying about countries taking offensive action against our satellites . . . the more satellites you have up doing the same mission, the harder it is for them to do anything to our satellites."

Building more, smaller satellites also lowers the cost of each bird through mass-production economies of scale. This fall, SpaceX is set to launch the first of 18 second-generation low-Earth-orbit narrowband satellites that Sierra Nevada is building for Orbcomm.

"They contracted with us $117 million for 18 satellites, so that's a unit cost of about $6.5 million a satellite," says Roth. "And if you look at what a typical NASA or [Defense Department] mission costs, you can't come anywhere close to that."

Compared to cubesats, however, even that is a high pricetag. With a standardized "1U form factor" measuring 10 cm (4 in.) on a side and weighing no more than 1.33 kg (3 lb.), cubesats typically cost well below $100,000 to build and launch. Coelho has seen changes in the technology first-hand, beginning in 2000 as a Cal Poly undergraduate working with cubesat pioneer Jordi Puig-Suari, and later joining the staff. Among the school's accomplishments is development of the standard cubesat deployment system—the Poly-PicoSatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD)—and helping to advance the state of the art in cubesats to the point that they are being used to tackle serious science missions (see p. 41).

"It was a training tool for students to build a satellite within their academic career, fr om design to manufacturing and then to launch and then to on-orbit operations," says Coelho of the early days. "And it was a good way for small commercial companies to do technology demonstrations for certain components."

Now, with growing acceptance fr om users and fr om the launch-service providers who must weigh the value of carrying secondary payloads against the risk they pose to their primary missions, the ideas for using small satellites, and particularly cubesats, are piling up. One early area of U.S. Air Force interest is multi-source weather data.

"Because the cubesats are small, you can launch them in bunches and disperse them out [with] variable drag capability," says David Hinkley, a senior project leader at The Aerospace Corp. "Now you've suddenly got 10 useful satellites flying around in different positions that can take temporal data, data that changes with time. In the past they would fly one big satellite, and they would not able to be in multiple places at once."

Aerospace is experimenting with using the variable drag in low Earth orbit that cubesats get fr om deploying and retracting different combinations of cruciform solar arrays. NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) plans to launch a constellation of eight 1.5U cubesats next summer in a project called the Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks. Its goal is to begin developing inter-satellite communications that could be applied to a number of different applications, including monitoring weather, ice cover in the polar regions and other Earth-surface conditions.

With its mission to push technology hard, Darpa is also working on a mission dubbed Phoenix that is aimed at recycling usable hardware fr om non-functioning satellites in geostationary (GEO) orbits by reactivating them with tiny modular "satlets" designed to perform various spacecraft functions. On July 12, the agency awarded Canada's MacDonald Dettwiler a contract worth as much as $2.1 million to begin developing systems that can revive a usable antenna on an out-of-service GEO satellite.

At the other end of the satellite service life, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is building on its work with NanoSail-D—a 100-sq.-meter (1,075-sq.-ft.) solar sail demonstration that deployed on Jan. 21, 2011, fr om a 3U cubesat—to develop deployable drag sails to pull obsolete smallsats out of orbit instead of adding to the space-debris problem.

Overall, Darpa plans to spend $36 million on the Phoenix project, which is peanuts by U.S. military standards. But it is big money in the smallsat world, where mass production and standard forms continue to cut hardware costs dramatically. A San Francisco-based company—Pumpkin Inc.—is selling cubesat kits starting at $7,500 that can be customized depending on the capabilities needed. To date, more than a dozen have been launched, according to Andrew Kalman, the company's president and chief technology officer, who says Pumpkin is following the Apple Inc. model.

"We want to make sure that cubesats really are one of the foremost places wh ere you can leverage the continuing advance of technology," says Kalman. "To do that you need to recognize that you are not in the driver's seat when it comes to the technology you want to put up there. Rather, you need to be leveraging other markets which are in the driver's seat, which in this case is essentially the consumer electronics field, and take advantage of those technologies."

When Orbital Sciences Corp. launches its first Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Va., later this summer, it will be carrying three 1U cubesats that take the consumer-electronics approach to spacecraft to new heights. Wedged into one of them will be a standard Android smartphone, with a bunch of extra batteries, in a test of whether the open-architecture electronics and commercial hardware can survive in space.

"If the platform is open, if the operating system is open, well then, almost anybody could write an app that could do something that may be beneficial to spaceflight, so you can tap into that larger community of app writers," says Bruce Yost a project manager at Ames Research Center, wh ere NASA's smallsat work is headquartered. "It kind of changes a lot of things that you do in aerospace."

Another "Phonesat" version carries the innards but not the case of the Android. The work, spearheaded at Ames with funding from OCT, is not lim ited to smartphone software, but includes such hardware possibilities as removing the weights from the phones' "vibrate" mode and using the motors as tiny reaction wheels, says Yost.

Despite the possibilities, some areas of smallsat technology still need work, particularly in the cubesat arena, wh ere communications is a particular problem. The Phonesats set to fly on the first Antares mission will test the smartphone computing for spaceflight apps, but the radio will be switched off because it would not work in space. Instead, cubesats rely on ham-radio frequencies for links with the ground, and that lim its both contact time and bandwidth.

To tackle those problems, experts at the European Space Agency are developing an international ground-station network called the Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations (Genso), which is basically a set of software and protocols that will give cubesat operators a worldwide network of ground stations (see map).

At Ames and California's San Jose State University, preparations are underway to begin operating the Technical and Educational Satellite (TechEdSat), which was launched July 20 on Japan's third H-II Transfer Vehicle. Based on a Pumpkin cubesat-kit structure, the 1U cubesat will become the first U.S. spacecraft to be deployed from the International Space Station (see p. 44)..

Inside are three radios—a Stensat Radio Beacon transmitting with 1 watt of power at 437 MHz, and modems designed for Orbcomm and Iridium low-Earth-orbit communications satellites. Because of licensing issues, only the beacon will be operating during flight, but San Jose State students have already demonstrated that the Iridium and Orbcomm hardware can be integrated into a 1U cubesat, and powered with batteries approved for safety by NASA's ISS program office at Johnson Space Center.

Communications is one of three areas in smallsat technology that will be flight-tested with new funding from NASA. The agency's chief technologist received a heavy response to its request for proposals in communications, proximity operations and propulsion, and expects to make selections for the 2-3-year effort before the end of August.

Sensors, software and thrusters for proximity operations could enable tiny inspectors to fly safely around larger spacecraft—including the ISS—to routinely document their physical condition and pinpoint debris damage or mechanical problems soon after they occur. Some of the software work is already underway inside the station with the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage & Reorient Experimental Satellites (Spheres) control-software testbeds: three volleyball-sized balls designed to give programmers a quick check of their algorithms in microgravity (AW&ST June 25, p. 44).

Because of the size and safety lim itations that launch-service providers impose on secondary payloads, propulsion has been a particularly difficult problem for small-spacecraft designers, with the difficulty increasing as the size decreases. The Swedish Space Corp.'s NanoSpace unit has used micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication technology to develop miniature thrusters that have been tested in orbit on the Prisma satellite testbeds (AW&ST May 7, p. 21).

At least one proposal in the OCT competition involves an update on the colloid thrusters tested in the 1960s and '70s and dropped in favor of ion propulsion because they just did not work as well. But now, says Paulo Lozano, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, advances in propellant chemistry and MEMS production is enabling development of "electrospray thrusters" that emit ions when subjected to an electric charge, instead of the heavier droplets emitted in the older technology. Using coulomb liquids—electrically conductive liquid salts composed of molecular ions—wicked by capillary action through a plate of tiny emitters produced with proprietary MEMS techniques—the thrusters produce a spray of ions when an electric charge is passed across them. The approach eliminates the need for pumps, valves and other moving parts, and generates specific impulses of 1,500-5,000 sec., depending on the propellant.

"It basically works like a candle," Lozano says, noting that the thrusters operated with 80% efficiency. "The 'wax' of the candle is the propellant, and the 'wick' is just the transport medium, and the 'flame' is the thrusting mechanism. So it's very similar, except that we evaporate ions, and in the process of evaporating the ions we also accelerate them to very high speeds."

In the longer term, engineers are studying ways to combine spacecraft so a small satellite can disperse cubesats after launch and then serve as a "mother-ship" communications hub. NASA's Nanosail-D flew to orbit in a P-POD inside the agency's Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite (Fastsat) developed by Dynetics as a way to get payloads to orbit on a freeflier in fewer than two years after authority to proceed. With the solar-sail demonstration, it also showed that a larger spacecraft can safely jettison a smaller one.

Now the Huntsville, Ala.-based company is looking for new uses for the Fastsat capability.

"The Communications Relay for the Arctic Domain is the next generation of that concept, wh ere we would actually be a mother ship and deploy multiple cubesats to fly in formation with Fastsat and provide a larger coverage ring," says Mike Graves, manager of the Space Vehicles Department at Dynetics. "So you have the host mother ship in the middle and then you've got in formation flight maybe four 3U cubesats, each one of those having its own localized communications capability and sensors, and then you send it back to the mother ship for the large data bandwidth to the ground."

[Salo]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/08/09/nasa-selects-3-smallsat-demo-missions/#more-41819

NASA Selects 3 Smallsat Demo Missions
Posted by Doug Messier
on August 9, 2012, at 6:22 pm

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (NASA PR) – NASA has chosen three teams to advance the state of the art for small spacecraft in the areas of communications, formation flying and docking systems. The cutting-edge space technology flights are expected to take place in 2014 and 2015.

All sel ected missions will employ nanosatellites conforming to the CubeSat standard. CubeSats are composed of four-inch, cube-shaped units with each having a volume of about one quart and a weight of approximately three pounds. CubeSats can be joined to create multiple-unit spacecraft. They readily can be accommodated as secondary payloads or rideshares on a number of space launch vehicles.
"NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program is structured to advance the capabilities and technologies associated with small, low cost space missions to enhance NASA's ability to conduct more with less," said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program at Headquarters in Washington. "These flights validate new space technologies and capabilities prior to infusion into NASA science and exploration applications and missions."

The three missions selected for flight demonstration are:

"Integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna (ISARA) for High Bandwidth CubeSat," Richard Hodges, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., partnering with Pumpkin Inc. of San Francisco. ISARA will demonstrate a radio communication system that dramatically boosts the amount of data that the small satellite can transmit by using the back of its solar array as a reflector for the antenna. This three-unit CubeSat will be funded at approximately $5.5 million with launch expected in two years.

"Integrated Optical Communications and Proximity Sensors for Cubesats," Siegfried Janson, Aerospace Corporation of El Segundo, Calif. This pair of 1.5-unit CubeSats will demonstrate a laser communication system for sending large amounts of information fr om a satellite to Earth and also demonstrate low-cost radar and optical sensors for helping small spacecraft maneuver near each other. The mission is expected to take two years and $3.6 million to develop and operate.

"Proximity Operations Nano-Satellite Flight Demonstration," Charles MacGillivray, Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems LLC of Orange, Calif. Two three-unit CubeSats will demonstrate rendezvous and mechanical docking of small spacecraft in orbit. This project is expected to take three years and approximately $13.5 million in funding to develop, launch and operate. Partners on the project include Applied Defense Solutions Inc. of Columbia, Md., 406 Aerospace LLC of Bozeman, Mont., and California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo.

NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program is designed to identify and support the development of new subsystem technologies to enhance or expand the capabilities of small spacecraft. The program also supports flight demonstrations of new small spacecraft technologies, capabilities and applications. In addition, it supports use of small spacecraft as platforms to test and demonstrate technologies and capabilities that might have applications in spacecraft and systems of any size.

NASA's Space Technology Program directs the Small Spacecraft Technology Program, which is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. NASA's Space Technology Program is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA's future science and exploration missions. NASA's technology investments provide cutting-edge solutions for our nation's future.

For more information about NASA's Space Technology Program and Small Spacecraft Technology Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/oct

[Salo]

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/08/usaf-kestrel-eye-1-spacecraft-falcon-9-2013/

USAF Kestrel Eye 1 spacecraft to ride on Falcon 9 in 2013
August 9th, 2012 by Chris Bergin



The US Air Force's Kestrel Eye 1 Tactical Imaging Spacecraft spacecraft will head uphill in 2013 as a secondary payload on a commercial Falcon 9 launch. Technically classed as a nanosatellite, the spacecraft will be hosted on the Spaceflight Secondary Payload System (SSPS), as part of SpaceX and Spaceflight's Launch Services Agreement (LSA).

Kestrel Hitching a Ride on Falcon 9:

Thursday's announcement follows contract signing between the USAF's Space Development and Test Directorate and Spaceflight to evaluate commercial launch options for, and potentially conduct commercial launch and orbit insertion operations of, the STP Satellite-3 (STPSat-3) and Kestrel Eye Tactical Imaging Spacecraft (Kestrel Eye) spacecraft.



The LSA between SpaceX and Spaceflight ranges back to when the two companies first signed a memorandum of understanding in 2010 to manifest secondary payloads on upcoming Falcon 9 flights. The LSA framework allows Spaceflight to manifest payloads on any Falcon vehicle designated by SpaceX as having excess capacity.

After the conclusion of the feasibility study, the Space Development and Test Directorate exercised a contract option to procure commercial launch services for the Kestrel Eye 1 spacecraft.

"We are extremely honored that the USAF Space Development and Test Directorate has sel ected Spaceflight for this watershed moment in the evolution of secondary payload acceptance," said Jason Andrews, President and CEO of Spaceflight Inc.



"It's another major step towards bringing the more affordable benefits of small, agile, commercial space providers together with Government customers to achieve the right solution for the mission."

Kestrel Eye, as the name suggests, is a surveillance spacecraft, equipped with a 10" telescope and camera, capable of providing images – in the jpeg format – to allied troops on the ground.

To meet the Kestrel Eye 1 mission requirements, Spaceflight will use its Spaceflight Secondary Payload System (SSPS) – a standardized integrated system for the transport of small payloads and CubeSats to orbit.

The SSPS uses a custom ring, manufactured by Moog CSA Engineering, and a series of shelves and adapters to accommodate secondary payloads on their ride to space. The ring is similar to the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) ring.

Spaceflight will develop a custom shelf to carry the Kestrel Eye spacecraft in a standard vertical launch orientation.

The SSPS also features a standalone avionics and power system dedicated to monitoring the secondary payloads, initiating their deployment and relaying video and telemetry of their separation to a ground station.

It is not yet clear which Falcon 9 mission will host Kestrel Eye 1, with SpaceX currently manifesting three commercial missions in 2013 – two from Cape Canaveral, and third fr om Vandenberg.

Click here for SpaceX Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/spacex/

Spaceflight has been working with its sister company, Andrews Space (Andrews), since 2010 to develop the SSPS and SHERPA family to meet its business requirements. Andrews will fabricate the SSPS and SHERPA at its recently expanded facility in Tukwila, WA.

"This is a historic moment for the commercial rideshare market," Mr Andrews added. "Our goal is to demonstrate that the US government can save significant money by using commercial launch services for small and secondary payloads."

The other system – the SHERPA in-space tug – is dedicated to hosting and deploying small and secondary payloads via a three-axis stabilized platform with over 400 meters per second of on-orbit maneuvering capability, can also provide over 100 Watts of electrical lifeblood to hosted or secondary payloads and can be upgraded to meet specific customer power, propulsion and pointing requirements.

Spaceflight's first demonstration mission of SHERPA will occur in early 2014, with the first commercial mission scheduled for late 2014. Both missions will be carried to sun synchronous orbits on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

[G.K.]

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/08/usaf-kestrel-eye-1-spacecraft-falcon-9-2013/

Знакомая картинка... Где-то я её видел уже...

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/launch/120814-rides-new-cubesats.html

Tue, 14 August, 2012
NASA Offering Rides to New Crop of Cubesats
By Dan Leone

WASHINGTON — NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative is seeking a fresh crop of nanosatellites to hitch a ride on previously planned launches between 2013 and 2016, the agency said Aug. 13. While no funding is being provided for development of the spacecraft themselves, NASA will fly the sel ected cubesats as auxiliary payloads on upcoming U.S. government launches.

Six of the 64 cubesats NASA has sel ected under the program since mid-2010 reached orbit last October as secondary payloads on the United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket that launched the Suomi NPP climate and weather satellite. Three other CubeSat Launch Initiative spacecraft were lost in the March 2011 Taurus XL launch failure that destroyed NASA's Glory climate-monitoring satellite.

Four more cubesats are slated to ride along with NROL-36, a classified U.S. National Reconaissance Office (NRO) mission currently expected to launch Sept. 6 fr om Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

The remaining 51 already-selected cubesats have either been manifested as secondary payloads on upcoming launches or are still waiting to be matched up with rides between now and 2014. NASA spokesman Joshua Buck said 10 of those cubesats have been assigned to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)'s third cargo-delivery flight to the international space station. Eight more have been assigned to the Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur 1 rocket launching fr om Wallops Island, Va., next year on behalf of the Pentagon's Operational Responsive Space Office. Other upcoming cubesat launch opportunites, Buck said, include NROL-39 and additional SpaceX cargo-delivery flights.

NASA, meanwhile, is giving applicants interested in joining the launch queue until Nov. 12 to submit proposals. The agency expects to make its selections by the end of January. "Selection does not guarantee a launch opportunity," NASA said in its Aug. 13 announcement. "The selected spacecraft will be eligible for flight after final negotiations when a launch opportunity arises."

Cubesats are a standard class of research satellites that measure 10 centimeters on each side and weigh up to 1.33 kilograms.

NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative is open to single-unit cubesats as well as larger spacecraft built fr om as many as six standard cubesats and weighing no more than 14 kilograms (The final weight lim it for six-unit cubesats, NASA says, is still to be determined).

NASA also said it is only looking for projects relevant to the agency's goals. "Proposed CubeSat investigations must be consistent with NASA's Strategic Plan and the NASA education vision and goals," the announcement states. "The research must address aspects of science, exploration, technology development, education or operations."

NASA's announcement coincided with the start of the 26th Annual Conference on Small Satellites, hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

[Salo]

instml пишет:

July 30, 2012 - NROL-36 Auxiliary Payloads Release
http://www.nro.gov/news/press/2012/2012-09.pdf

[Salo]

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_08_20_2012_p31-486488.xml&p=1

Smallsats Gaining Capability For Government Jobs

By Frank Morring, Jr.
Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology



August 20, 2012

Frank Morring, Jr. Logan, Utah

Tight budgets and small satellites are turning out to be an attractive mix, driving industrial and academic efforts to make tiny spacecraft more attractive to customers with deeper pockets than the penurious graduate students and innovative professors who pioneered the move down the size and mass scales.

Presentations at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics/Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites here show that entrepreneurs and established companies are starting to address the limitations posed by the cubesat standard to drive more capability into the 10 X 10 X 10-cm (3.9 X 3.9 X 3.9-in.) boxes originally developed as teaching tools for engineering students. And cubesats are growing beyond the three-unit, or U, limit imposed by the Poly-PicoSatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD) dispenser they typically ride to orbit.

"The idea of 6U gives you a little more room, a little more payload space, and a little bit more room for avionics and things like that," says James P. Marshall, director of business development at the Space Dynamics Laboratory here, which has developed operational cubesats and other small spacecraft and boasts what may be the only cubesat qualification lab in the world. "I've always guessed that we would all find the cubesat form-factor to be too constraining, and that we would all miniaturize a bunch of stuff and then get to the point of diminishing returns," Marshall says.

Among the hardware on display here was a 6U dispenser under development by Planetary Systems of Silver Springs, Md., "in collaboration" with the Pentagon's Office of Responsive Space (ORS), according to company founder Walter Holemans. The ORS interest in cubesats as a way to meet its military mission is one of the factors shaping the direction the industry is taking, and for the second year in a row the organization held a classified workshop to discuss its requirements with industry representatives who are cleared to learn them and potentially able to meet them.

While the largest aerospace companies were represented here, some of the most promising work was presented by small startups such as Planetary Systems, which is building on its niche in mechanical separation mechanisms with the cubesat-dispenser work. Vulcan Wireless Inc. of Carlsbad, Calif., displayed a family of software-defined radios built to fit into the cubesat form that can meet some military communications requirements.

"The small satellites are starting to get more capability, so the military's starting to look at these platforms as a kind of stop-gap measure, low-cost, rapid-deployment," says Kevin Lynaugh, president and CEO of Vulcan. "So you need to start looking into more sophisticated communications that's more applicable to military solutions and, to some extent, commercial. And those waveforms are quite a bit more sophisticated than ham radio analog modulation."

Most cubesats flying today use amateur-radio frequencies to communicate with the ground, a simple approach in keeping with the low-cost origins of the satellite class. But just as military applications may require larger buses to accommodate optical and other specialized payloads, they also require higher data rates and encryption capability unavailable in the ham frequencies.

Potential military applications for cubesat-based spacecraft include inexpensive low-Earth-orbit communications with ground troops in mountainous or urban terrain where signals fr om geostationary orbits may be blocked.

On the civil side, NASA is pushing smallsat technology for low-cost science missions. The agency's Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT), which has funds to push the readiness levels of enabling technologies without a specific mission in mind, has just announced three space-based experiments employing cubesats to demonstrate advanced communications and control techniques.

The company receiving the largest share of the $22.6 million in OCT funding is a spin-off from the engineering school at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, an early academic developer of cubesats. Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems of Orange, Calif., will use two 3U cubesats in a rendezvous-and-docking experiment expected to fly in 2015. Working with Tyvak on the $13.5 million Proximity Operations Nano-Satellite Flight Demonstration project will be Applied Defense Solutions Inc. of Columbia, Md.; and 406 Aerospace of Bozeman, Mont.

Also funded by the OCT through NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program at Ames Research Center will be a Jet Propulsion Laboratory experiment—the integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna (Isara) for High Bandwidth CubeSat—that uses the back of a cubesat solar array as an antenna reflector to increase radio bandwidth for data communications. Richard Hodges of JPL, in partnership with Pumpkin Inc. of San Francisco, will receive about $5.5 million to launch the 3U cubesat in two years. The Aerospace Corp. will receive $3.6 million for its Integrated Optical Communications and Proximity Sensors for Cubesats experiment, a pair of 1.5U cubesats designed to demonstrate laser communications from space to Earth, as well as inexpensive radar and optical sensors for spacecraft-proximity operations.

Another hurdle for cubesat-based spacecraft is propulsion. Small satellites are typically launched as secondary payloads by launch service providers that are uncomfortable with the potential risk of extra propulsion systems. Several exhibits here featured high-specific-impulse electric propulsion systems, including variations on the electrospray thrusters engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are fabricating with micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques (AW&ST July 30, p. 36).

An alternative presented at the smallsat conference—and test-fired on an abandoned runway at the small local airport—uses additive manufacturing (AM) to create a hybrid engine that literally uses itself as fuel to generate higher thrust than the electric systems.

Those systems require "long burn times to produce significant delta V," says Matthew Dushku, head of the Experiment Propulsion Lab, a small startup based here. "That means it's going to take longer to [reach] your desired orbit, and it's going to consume portions of useful mission life."

Dushku and his business partner, Paul Mueller, have worked with Planetary Sciences to develop an AM motor to drive a 6U cubesat built with the same 3-D printing process. Their motor and the satellite shell are produced by race-car parts house CRP USA of Mooresville, N.C., using Windform XT 2.0, a picocarbon-reinforced nylon material that can be laid up in layers as a powder and hardened with a laser scanner.

The motor essentially consumes itself as it burns, igniting in the presence of nitrous oxide housed in a tank space that surrounds a cylinder of the carbon-reinforced nylon that burns from the inside out. The motor configuration can only be made using the additive-manufacturing technique, which offers more flexibility than reductive machining, Dushku says.

To produce the motors, CRP uses a computer-aided design (CAD) file containing the motor's shape, and electronically divides it into layers for the 3-D printing. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) uses the same technique to manufacture tiny impellers and other parts for its Merlin rocket engines from titanium powder, according to a SpaceX spokesman.

Dushku says the AM motors, which operate with a tank pressure of 700 psi, have been pressurized to 2,200 psi with water before failing. That margin, the inert hybrid fuel and the high temperature needed to decompose nitrous oxide into nitrogen and oxygen should reassure launch service providers with safety concerns, he says.

In their runway demonstration, Dushku and Mueller used a little of the nitrous oxide in the motor tank to fire cold-gas attitude-control thrusters to rotate the 6U spacecraft shell, and then they hot-fired the motor for 5 sec. Ultimately, they hope to produce a small AM spacecraft that can generate a delta V of 780 meters per sec. with a 60-sec. burn time.

"We can get to wh ere we want to be very, very quickly," Dushku says.

[Salo]

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_08_27_2012_p26-488720.xml

Army Eyes Ambitious, Cheap Satellites And Launchers
By Amy Butler
Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology



August 27, 2012

Amy Butler Huntsville, Ala.

The U.S. Army is making headway with plans to demonstrate the utility of nanosatellites and small, low-cost, mobile launchers to provide direct support to deployed forces. Such assets would bypass the traditional data processing and dissemination system located in the U.S.

Though the Army's budget for space systems pales in comparison to the Air Force's multibillion-dollar annual satellite and launcher procurement request, the former's small demonstration project could spark a much-needed roles-and-missions discussion about which service is best suited to provide tactical spaceborne capabilities for soldiers abroad. This focus by the Army on the utility of small satellites comes as the Air Force is pushing to close its Operationally Responsive Space office, which was designed to find ways to reduce cycle time for spacecraft, including an emphasis on smaller buses.

While the Army is aggressively pursuing a plan to showcase these tactical capabilities starting next year, the Air Force is taking a longer view of infusing small satellites into its architecture by studying ways to augment the traditional satellites now 23,000 mi. up in geosynchronous orbit with smaller, more agile systems in lower orbits.

If the Army's plan prevails, the Pentagon could take an approach similar to that used for tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft in parsing out responsibilities between the two services, says Brig. Gen. Timothy Coffin, deputy commander for operations at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command here.

One way to divide the workload would be to allocate responsibility to the Air Force for larger constellations to serve the "global community," Coffin suggests. The Army, by contrast, could step in and handle special-mission tactical requirements, which will often be on low-orbit satellites with a short life cycle. This model, he says, is akin to the way ISR responsibilities are apportioned, with the Air Force providing much of the strategic collection services from its fleets and relaying data back to massive ground station infrastructures for processing, while the Army handles more tactical requirements, with products going straight to soldiers on the ground.

The Pentagon is providing low-level funding for three Army advanced-concept technology demonstration initiatives: Kestrel Eye, a 15-kg, (33-lb.) 1-meter resolution electro-optical imaging nanosatellite; Snap, a beyond-line-of-sight communications satellite; and the Soldier-Warfighter Operationally Responsive Deployer for Space (Swords), a low-cost, mobile launcher capable of lofting a 25-kg payload 466 mi. into orbit.

Each is designed to maximize use of existing commercial parts and suppliers, avoiding costly unique design requirements. Kestral Eye is already built and will be launched within the next year, as will the Snap spacecraft, Coffin says. The total cost of building Kestrel Eye, which employs a legacy star-tracker payload, is about $1.5 million, assuming production of 10 units per year.

But, the Army's quest for low-cost, responsive space support cannot be realized without inexpensive launch. Swords is designed to address that. In this program, the Army hopes to reduce the price to $1.8 million per launch, including range cost, by making use of commercial grade materials, not aerospace-grade components. And, the design will employ a Tridyne pressure-fed engine, bypassing the need for a turbopump. The concept calls for a "ship-and-shoot" capability that could operate from nearly anywhere with a concrete slab, and the mobile launcher is designed to be transportable by a C-130 cargo hauler.

Ideally, the Army would like a small arsenal of these satellites and launchers in the event of a pop-up crisis, such as the Libya operation in 2011, or an outage of an existing satellite in orbit.

In years past, the Army eschewed such concepts because the price of entry to space was high; but a reduced price could allow for the service to view satellites in low Earth orbit much like an extension of their tactical unmanned aircraft fleet, which can relay communications or collect intelligence.

Meanwhile, the Air Force has proposed closing its Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office, which was formed at the behest of a Congress eager to prompt the service to develop smaller satellites and launchers on significantly reduced timelines and cost. Lawmakers are now discussing the proposal in the fiscal 2013 budget. Lt. Gen. John Hyten, vice chief of Air Force Space Command, says the service has infused the precepts of ORS into its satellite program offices, eliminating the need for a separate organization to champion them. "There will be a role for smaller satellites" that can be launched more quickly, he tells Aviation Week during an interview here. Procurement mishaps in developing such constellations as the Lockheed Martin Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) protected satcom system and Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) ballistic missile detector have given the service a "black eye," he says. "We have to prove ourselves in the programs we have" before earning the credibility to move forward with major new concepts.

In the meantime, however, the Air Force is studying how to implement a "disaggregation" strategy for its constellations, a concept that calls for spreading resources to reduce the reliance on a few high-value satellites in a constellation. This is useful in the event of an attack on space assets—kinetic or otherwise—and would also act as insurance against an in-orbit malfunction.

The nearest-term constellation suitable for disaggregation is likely the Milstar/AEHF protected communications system. The systems onboard the AEHF satellites now being lofted 23,000 mi. into geosynchronous orbit are all designed to the highest standards of surviving the fallout of a nuclear explosion. Hyten notes that special operators are "carrying the nuclear survivability requirement" as they use large antennas to tap into the system (owing to the high satellite altitude) for communications in the Middle East, for example. If smaller satellites suitable for covert communications were lofted into a lower orbit, these soldiers could carry smaller radios and still achieve the service they need.

"AEHF [satellites] don't have to be as big or as complicated as they are today," Hyten says. Through a disaggregation strategy, nuclear-hardened, command-and-control payloads could still reside on buses in geosynchronous orbit, while more tactical, augmenting payloads could orbit independently, he says.

Disaggregation is also being eyed for other satellite communications constellations as well as for the missile-warning system now in orbit. The Air Force is already committed to buying six AEHF and Sbirs satellites, so decisions on shifting to a new constellation are not needed immediately. Most likely, these decisions will be made in about two years, when the Pentagon assembles the Fiscal 2016 budget.

Hyten also notes that disaggregation could be employed to field some navigation payloads to reduce the instances of reduced GPS signals for soldiers in large cities or mountainous regions, areas that lack a line of sight to four GPS satellites simultaneously.

[Salo]

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_08_27_2012_p20-487486.xml&p=1

Smallsats Provide Another New Space Market
By Frank Morring, Jr.
Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology

August 27, 2012

Creating an off-world economy in low Earth orbit is one of the goals of U.S. space policy. After a week at the 26th AIAA/Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites, it is clear that there is more to it than funding commercial vehicles to take astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The enthusiastic young engineers at the conference cutting their teeth on tiny cubesats have already made their presence felt in space with the increasingly sophisticated spacecraft they have invented.

The innovation that goes into stuffing all the elements of spacecraft buses and scientific payloads into a few cubes 10 cm (3.9 in.) on a side, and the willingness to take risks to give their handiwork a spaceflight checkout, is right in line with the New Space philosophy rooted in Mojave and Hawthorne, Calif., and in garages around the country. An early glimmer of the potential symbiosis between the human-spaceflight enterprises such as SpaceX and the cubesat community came at a workshop on getting cubesats to orbit.

Joseph Carroll of Tether Applications Inc. told a room full of cubesat developers that the regular flights to the ISS envisioned for Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Cygnus and particularly the flight-tested SpaceX Dragon (see photo) are perfect for launching their tiny birds.

"The goal is to look beyond what makes secondary payload launches possible to what makes them attractive," says Carroll, an experienced engineer who launched experimental secondary payloads on Delta II rockets carrying GPS satellites to orbit in the 1990s. On one of those missions, McDonnell Douglas was able to manage a delay in payload delivery by swapping the upper stage that had been modified to accommodate it with the next one in the flight sequence. For the same reason, relatively frequent launches on commercial cargo vehicles would give flexibility to cubesat launching, he says, a real advantage when the spacecraft suppliers are students or startups.

The commercial station-cargo carriers have the added advantage of being U.S.-owned, which eases International Traffic in Arms Regulations and other export control issues presented by non-U.S. launchers such as Russia's Dnepr. Multiple launches by the same operators also provide a stable company policy on accepting secondary payloads. And since NASA and the Pentagon are showing more interest in small satellites, the government customers actually make it less expensive to carry secondaries (AW&ST Aug. 20, p. 31).

"Most commercial launches are insured, and most government launches are not, so that kind of pushes you toward government launches," Carroll says, explaining that secondaries to commercial payloads will find that the insurance on the primary adds cost to launching their payloads as well. "This may not fit the ideology of New Space being fully commercial, but . . . you may find that you're back in the world of government payloads."

Carroll cites the example of NASA's old Get Away Special (GAS) program as evidence that government launches can support secondary payloads. There were 127 secondary payloads launched fr om GAS canisters in the space shuttle payload bay, he says, and the program was pitched toward the same "novice" community that flies cubesats. That they flew on a human spacecraft suggests the current restrictions on cubesat propulsion and electronic interference can be surmounted by applying the GAS lessons.

SpaceX plans to fly an Orbcomm 2 smallsat on its next ISS resupply mission, after pulling it from its first flight to the station because of NASA safety concerns. NASA is flying its small Phonesat experiment as a secondary payload on Orbital's Antares station-resupply rocket. Those precedents can lead to regular cubesat rides to orbit.

NASA already has programs to launch cubesats as secondary payloads on its scheduled missions, as does the Pentagon. In February, the civilian space agency picked 33 more small satellites to fly under its Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program, and this month issued another call for proposals for launches in 2013-16.

Added to the U.S. National Laboratory Facility on the ISS, there are a lot of free rides to space for small scientific payloads, and secondary payloads are another source of government funds for launch service providers. There is increasing commercial interest in small satellites—ATK recently expanded its line of smallsats downward in scale—so the launch market is likely to grow.

But Carroll warns that there are some risks. Of particular concern is the space-debris issue. Most current cubesats are short-lived, uncontrolled and right at the lower size lim it of what can be tracked from the ground.

"The real solution to my mind is to launch on Dragon but attach to the Falcon second stage," Carroll says. "After [main engine cutoff], the Dragon goes its separate way, and the Falcon is available for use" to place secondary payloads in safe orbits, using the stage's excess capacity.

[Танк]

CNews.ru: Главные новости    

16.03.2012, 15:42:58
________________________________________

Рой одноразовых спутников передаст снимки с космоса на смартфон

Оборонное научное агентство DARPA начинает разработку спутниковых систем, которые смогут отправлять изображения непосредственно на терминалы солдат.
Современные спутники не способны справиться с такой задачей, поскольку зачастую находятся на неподходящих орбитах, к тому же для получения информации с орбиты солдатам сегодня требуется сложное оборудование, требующее предварительного развертывания.
 
Небольшие спутники предоставят солдатам прямой доступ к снимкам с орбиты
В рамках программы DARPA под названием SeeMe (Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements) будет создан рой недорогих одноразовых спутников, которые смогут отправлять изображения на портативные устройства вроде смартфона или планшетного компьютера.
Развернутая система SeeMe будет использовать две дюжины небольших спутников стоимостью 500 тыс. долл. каждый. Спутники будут расположены на очень низкой околоземной орбите, при этом каждый спутник будет проходить над интересующим военных регионом планеты раз в 90 минут в течение 2-3 месяцев, после чего сгорит в атмосфере. Таким образом, весь рой SeeMe обеспечит практически непрерывное наблюдение за определенной точкой планеты и не засорит околоземное пространство.
Рой спутников SeeMe заполнит пробел между традиционными высокоорбитальными мощными дорогими спутниками и беспилотными и пилотируемыми самолетами-разведчиками. В отличие от БПЛА, SeeMe будут неуязвимы для ПВО, охватывать намного больший регион и не потребуют дозаправки и обслуживания. Для запуска спутников, возможно, будет использоваться самолетная система ALASA, предназначенная для вывода в космос небольшой полезной нагрузки весом около 100 кг.

http://www.cnews.ru/news/top/print.shtml?2012/03/16/481824

[instml]

Ужас летящий на крыльях ночи
Старому такое нравится

[Echidna]

Они забыли отметить, что такая система планируется не введеной в эксплуатацию Т.е сейчас они ее отрабатывать будут. И если поймут, что все хорошо и она решает все задачи, то просто на боевое дежурство поставят пару МБР с грузом таких вот аппаратиков на борту. Которые в случае военного конфликта стартуют и выводят этот рой на орбиту. Ну и через сутки уже 2-3 месяца работающая система в распоряжении военных.

Дешево и сердито. Не надо поддерживать постоянно функционирующей систему, потому что развернуть ее - дело 1-2 пусков.

[G.K.]

пару МБР с грузом таких вот аппаратиков на борту. Которые в случае военного конфликта стартуют и выводят этот рой на орбиту.

А как вы отличите пуск таких МБР от боевых?

[Salo]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/10/11/andrews-space-to-manufacture-dutch-cubesat-dispenser/

Andrews Space to Manufacture Dutch CubeSat Dispenser
Posted by Doug Messier
on October 11, 2012, at 4:04 pm


SEATTLE, WA, 11 October 2012 (Andrews Space PR) – Andrews Space (Andrews) today announced it signed an agreement with ISIS of the Netherlands to begin manufacturing a US version of the ISIPOD, branded the EZPOD, in the United States. Under the terms of the agreement, Andrews will manufacture and integrate the EZPODs domestically with initial units available as early as January 2013.

"Until now the United States only had a single CubeSat dispenser solution available. The ISIS ISIPOD product is reliable, proven and lower-cost than similar products on the market and now it's available in the United States, under the brand name EZPOD, as a domestically manufactured solution," said Jason Andrews, President and CEO of Andrews Space. "The EZPOD gives our customers a highly competitive alternative to the status quo."

Abe Bonnema, Marketing Director of ISIS, said "Our agreement with Andrews Space extends our dispenser product line into the United States, satisfying the need for US customers to have a domestically produced product, manufactured by a company that meets ISIS' high standards for quality and workmanship."

Jason Andrews adds, "We will continue to expand our partnership with ISIS to manufacture 6U and 12U EZPOD dispensers for larger CubeSats as well. Both structures and dispensers for these sizes will be available during the first half of 2013".

All Andrews products and components are built domestically using Andrews' AS9100C certified quality procedures for spaceflight hardware.

About Andrews Space

Andrews Space, Inc. was founded in 1999 to be a catalyst in the commercialization and development of space. The company is an affordable integrator of aerospace systems and developer of advanced space technologies. To learn more, please visit: www.andrews-space.com.

About ISIS – Innovative Solutions In Space

ISIS – Innovative Solutions In Space B.V. was founded in 2006 to enable more cost-effective space missions by using nano-satellite systems. The company is a vertically integrated company in the nanosatellite segment and a developer and provider of various nanosatellite modules, systems and services. For more information, please visit: www.isispace.nl .

[Echidna]

пару МБР с грузом таких вот аппаратиков на борту. Которые в случае военного конфликта стартуют и выводят этот рой на орбиту.

А как вы отличите пуск таких МБР от боевых?

Ну МБР это плохое название. Погорячился. Это РН, твердотопливные, вероятно не шахтного базирования. В общем отличие должно быть во всем. В т.ч в оповещении заранее стран, таких как наша. Ведь с нами воевать с использованием таких спутников будет менее эффективно, чем сразу пускать настоящую МБР безо всякой ерундятины...

А против Ирана, например, запросто сработает.

[ZOOR]

http://ebull.ru/dl/147is_49.pdf

НАСА запускает наноспутники университетов США

  В начале  2012  года  было  отобрано  на конкурсной основе 32 проекта запуска наноспутников.  Список  включает  26 гражданских и военных заведений образования, а также общественную организацию  радиолюбителей  АМСАТ  (www.amsa.org),  весь  список  здесь:  http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/feb/HQ_12-050_CubeSats.html.  В  начале 2012 года попутным запуском было запущено 8 наноспутников. Следующий
пуск  состоялся  13  августа  2012  года, попутно с запуском спутника NROL–36 Национального  разведывательного управления  США  (под  задачи  ВМФ)  с помощью ракеты Атлас–5, кстати, имеющей  на  первой  ступени  российские двигатели  РД–180.  Кроме  основного спутника весом в несколько тонн дополнительно было запущено сразу 11 наноспутников по программе ELaNa.
Читать далее ....

[Stalky]

Echidna пишет:
Они забыли отметить, что такая система планируется не введеной в эксплуатацию    Т.е сейчас они ее отрабатывать будут. И если поймут, что все хорошо и она решает все задачи, то просто на боевое дежурство поставят пару МБР с грузом таких вот аппаратиков на борту. Которые в случае военного конфликта стартуют и выводят этот рой на орбиту. Ну и через сутки уже 2-3 месяца работающая система в распоряжении военных.

Дешево и сердито.    Не надо поддерживать постоянно функционирующей систему, потому что развернуть ее - дело 1-2 пусков.

Случаи острого военного напряжения всё же достаточно пространственно локальны. Что на оперативном и оперативно-тактическом уровнях толку от вашего Роя? До повторного возврата в интересующий вас район он будет несколько суток болтаться над теми местами, которые вашему командованию нисколько не интересны. У малых же КА ,  рассеяных  в пространстве поодиночке, элементарно не хватит производительности для оказания сколь-нибудь значимых информационных услуг. Если же Вы решите очень плотно заполонить МКА/Роями всё космическое пространство вокруг Земли, то такой акт будет однозначно расценен серьезным противником как акт агрессии и он просто, в крайнем случае, взорвёт несколько ядерных зарядов в космосе - создаст мощные искусственные радиационные пояса на орбитах роёв с соответствующими последствиями для слабозащищённой электроники малых КА. Что касается других КА, что своих, что чужих, то их судьба в столь сложный момент также никого интересовать не будет.

Удивляет сейчас другое - отсутствие достоверной информации о разработках суборбитальных систем информационного обеспечения (связь, управление, разведка...)  оперативно-тактического уровня, которые можно запустить с помощью авиационной или наземно/морской  оперативно-тактической ракеты ровно тогда и там, где это вам действительно необходимо и удерживать над интересующей территорией не единицы минут, а десятки минут и единицы часов   и без особых проблем к их восполнению. Сбить их в отличии от чисто аэродинамических БПЛА будет куда как сложнее. Толку имхо будет на порядки больше, чем от Роёв МКА на орбитах.

[Старый]

Что касается пресловутого "роя" - как обидно будет пчёлам когда над интересующим районом окажется облачность...

В целом данная идея это классика умышленной дезинформации через открытые источники. 

[Stalky]

Старый пишет:
Что касается пресловутого "роя" - как обидно будет пчёлам когда над интересующим районом окажется облачность...  
.

Это даже не обсуждается - пчёлы умрут от одной лишь досады.

Старый пишет:
В целом данная идея это классика умышленной дезинформации через открытые источники.

Про Рои МКА согласен. Отдельный интерес имхо могут представлять глобальные сетевые КС, построенные по схеме Иридиума (но также с оговоркой, что тоже не вундервафля и , во-вторых, это не МКА).

А что скажете про идею суборбитальных систем информационного обеспечения поля боя?

[pkl]

Stalky пишет:
Удивляет сейчас другое - отсутствие достоверной информации о разработках суборбитальных систем информационного обеспечения (связь, управление, разведка...) оперативно-тактического уровня, которые можно запустить с помощью авиационной или наземно/морской тактической ракеты ровно тогда и там, где это вам действительно необходимо и удерживать над интересующей территорией не единицы минут, а десятки минут и единицы часов и без особых проблем к их восполнению. Сбить их в отличии от аэродинамических БПЛА будет куда как сложнее. Толку имхо будет на порядки больше, чем от Роёв МКА на орбитах.

Это как это такое возможно? Суборбитальные аппараты "висят" 5, максимум 10 минут. Или Вы их предлагаете запускать на траектории с апогеем в десятки тысяч км, как неудачные американские лунные зонды в 50-х?