This article is from the WeChat public account: Interface News (ID: wowjiemian) , author: Xu Shi-chi, from the title figure: Figure insects creative
These small, cheap little satellites are connected to each other like Lego and will solve many problems in aviation missions.
Recently, North American Grumman, a well-known military manufacturer in the United States, said that a startup, Saturn Satellite Networks, will be the first customer of the rocket OmegaA. Saturn will load one or two small satellites on OmegaA in 2021.
Only in September this year, Saturn acquired NovaWurks for a seven-figure price, a space startup known for producing “Lego-style satellites.”
Lego-style small satellites can be connected to each other like blocks in space and work at the same time. They are actually called “small modular satellites” and are smaller than A4 paper and only a few inches thick.
In the coming years, this modular approach may be used in more and more space missions.
Although they are small, these satellites are fully functional-communicating with the earth, moving in space, processing data, providing power sources, and so on. Just hook up a camera, radiation sensor, or computer circuit before launching, and send it all into space.
The idea is perfect, but this is just an ongoing experiment.
In 2018, spaceX’s Rocket Falcon 9 carried more than 60 small satellites produced by NovaWurks-eXCITe.
On the day of launch, after the rocket rose to the designated altitude, the satellite entered orbit. Everything looks smooth, and most of the accompanying instruments and the spacecraft themselves perform worse than expected.many.
But the problem quickly appeared, and the ground was unable to send commands to certain devices on the spacecraft. The spacecraft encountered technical difficulties in connecting certain payloads. Of the 8 payloads inserted, the spacecraft could not accept and perform ground command.
At that time, there were some experimental attachments of partners on the eXCITe satellite, and those attachments did not perform well.
One of them is Maestro, a computational experiment led by David Barnhardt of the University of Southern California’s Information Science Institute. Barnhart says his goal is to prove that a 49-core processor can function properly in the face of space radiation. Due to power constraints and the need to cope with radiation, chips and processors in space systems are currently behind. “Those processors that are resistant to radiation are the slowest processors you can imagine,” he explained.
For Maestro, the benefit of joining the eXCITe satellite is simple: it’s free. However, Barnhardt did not retrieve any data due to a communication failure. But his team did understand that they could build both payloads and software to ensure that the processor cores were running on track.
Another payload that didn’t work at eXCITe was R3S, a NASA instrument designed to help measure how much radiation airline employees have been exposed to. The head of the Langley Research Center ’s small satellite said: “(After the rocket took off) they could n’t turn on the R3S.” But like Barnhardt, she dismissed the result. “This is first and foremost a high-risk project,” she said. “We should take that risk.”
Nevertheless, this level of failure is acceptable compared to a better prospect. After all, if spacecraft components can be “plug and play” like computer equipment, it will significantly reduce the cost of space system design, manufacturing, testing, and operation.
A prominent feature of small modular satellites is their open architecture. According to the modular division standard, the satellite can be divided into multiple functional modules as a whole. Each functional module is an independent whole and can independently complete one or more tasks. And each functional module adopts a standard unified interface. When multiple modules are connected together, they become a larger integrated module.
In theory, an integrated module can also reallocate resources to repair itself: a group of small satellites can share functions with each other and adjust the workload according to changing needs. For example, if one of the satellites has a bad battery, the other partner satellites can help.
This approach reduces the risk of launching things into space.For launchers, launches are more efficient because they don’t need to spend time customizing an entire satellite from scratch.
Darpa (U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) launched the Phoenix Project in 2011. One of the goals of the plan is to figure out whether it is possible to combine small satellites into large ones. In 2012, NovaWurks began working with Darpa and eventually became the main contractor for some Phoenix Project projects.
At present, NASA, the United States Air Force and other organizations are currently deploying plans to provide launch opportunities for these “Lego satellites.” Although technology is immature and poses many risks, space journeys are inherently full of adventures, and they need to be prepared for them.
This article is from WeChat public account: Interface News (ID: wowjiemian) , author: Xu Shi-chi