Emergent Teams with SpaceDev on Autonomous
Nanosatellite Design
Emergent Space Technologies, Inc. is part of a team, headed by
SpaceDev, Inc. (www.spacedev.com)
in
Poway, California, that has been
awarded a $1.25 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory
Space Vehicles Directorate for the preliminary design of a
nanosatellite capable of independently providing localized Space
Situational Awareness of the local space environment of a host
satellite. SpaceDev received the contract award from the AFRL to carry
the design to a Preliminary Design Review level. This award includes an
option to carry the design to a Critical Design Review level with
technology at a system Technology Readiness Level of 5, by no later
than May 2007.
The purpose of the AFRL experiment is to scale Space
Situational Awareness capabilities and functionality into a
nanosatellite package. Shown here are the twin FASTRAC nanosatellites
being developed by Dr. Glenn Lightsey, Principal Investigator, and his
team of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Texas
at Austin. The FASTRAC team won the Air Force Research Laboratory’s
University Nanosatellite-3 competition, whose competition rules
stipulated that the satellites entered must weigh less than 30
kilograms (about 70 pounds) and cost less than $100,000. UT-Austin's
entry, the Formation Autonomy Spacecraft with Thrust, Relnav, Attitude,
and Crosslink (FASTRAC) is actually a pair of satellites designed to
demonstrate new technologies that enable spacecraft to work together in
groups. For more information on FASTRAC, see http://fastrac.ae.utexas.edu/.
The ANGELS contract requires the nanosatellite to be capable of flight
experimentation by early 2009. The satellite will be designed to have a
one-year mission life at geosynchronous orbit, with a three year goal
of operational life from the time of launch. Nanosatellite solutions
are required to be compact, affordable, and effectively designed. The
vehicle is expected to allow operations with minimal ground
intervention.
SpaceDev is the prime contractor, and is responsible for
the design of the satellite, known as an Autonomous NanoSatellite
Guardian for Evaluating Local Space (ANGELS). In addition to Emergent,
the SpaceDev ANGELS team includes BAE Systems, SAIC, Schafer, and
Vacco.
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