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A new generation of satellites is coming to the launch pad, and they are promising a tectonic shift in satellite operations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Where satellites once were tailored to a single mission and effectively locked into their role upon launch, several manufacturers are moving to embrace this vision of a satellite with functions that can be reprogrammed, a spacecraft that can take new applications on board in order to expand its range of performance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Today\u2019s best satellites \u201care durable, they are capable \u2026 but honestly they don\u2019t evolve much once they are launched,\u201d said Maria Demaree, vice president and general manager of mission solutions at Lockheed Martin Space. Emerging software-defined satellites, or smart sats, will literally be programmable on the fly. \u201cThe satellites are going to be able to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
That kind of flexibility helps to define the promise of the emerging smart sat approach.<\/p>\n
\u2018Smarter than ever\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n Lockheed Martin undertook a multi-year, self-funded effort to develop its soon-to-launch smart sat capability. The new technology will interface with all of the company\u2019s satellite busses and ground systems, and it will be programmable, company officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt adapts on the fly so we can evolve technology and missions as our customer needs evolve,\u201d said Sonia Phares, vice president of systems, software, cyber, and operations at Lockheed Martin. \u201cWe can integrate onboard artificial intelligence and machine learning, making our satellites smarter than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Also underway, Boeing said it will design and build seven super-powered medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites for SES. The O3b empower satellites will carry digital payload technology, giving them a greater range of flexibility, according to Boeing documents. SES describes power as not just a satellite system but rather \u201can end-to-end managed data services ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n And Eurtelsay makes similar claims for its Quantum satellite. Coverage, power, frequency and bandwidth: \u201cEach of these features can be reconfigured in-orbit throughout the satellite\u2019s lifetime,\u201d the company noted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lockheed Martin officials said they have multiple launches planned later this year for unspecified commercial and military customers. \u201cWe have production level code that is on a satellite right now,\u201d Phares said.<\/p>\n Because ground controllers will be able to update the smart sat\u2019s security system in response to emerging threats, end users should see a more robust cyber-defense posture, Phares said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The ability to adjust a satellite\u2019s performance parameters could also make it easier to handle big data-processing loads more effectively. Say, for instance, engineers develop an app that will allow for on-board processing of data that formerly had to be sent down to Earth-based analysts. An end user could substantially reduce the bandwidth demand, by sending down only data that requires analyst expertise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Reduce, reuse \u2026<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n With software as the basis for a satellite\u2019s operations, it may be possible to leverage space hardware more effectively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSay you had a communications satellite delivering coverage of western Europe, but a couple of years after it launches, the demand in eastern Europe grows substantially,\u201d Demaree said. Rather that deploy another satellite to close the gap, it might be possible to reconfigure the existing asset to cover the changed mission requirement.<\/p>\n Or suppose a weather satellite stops functioning. With smart sats, the end user could pick up the flow of needed data by reprogramming other satellites. It\u2019s already possible to pull such data from multiple sources, \u201cbut today you\u2019d have to stitch that data together on the ground,\u201d said Demaree. Rather than take that expensive and time-consuming route, a smart sat might allow the user to redirect other assets to cover the weather mission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There are limits to this approach. Software may enable a satellite to make new or better use of its existing hardware, but the satellite still will be constrained by the sensors that it has on board.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cYou are not going to turn an imaging satellite into some other kind of satellite. It will have the payload that it has, but you can optimize that,\u201d Phares said. Existing sensors can be made more efficient, or repurposed for alternate uses beyond what was originally envisioned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A number of technology trends have come together to make smart sats possible, including the advent of the hypervisor and the rise of multi-core processing. Lockheed Martin has leveraged these via an open-standards approach so that the software-driven methodology can be applied across a range of hardware platforms and ground control capabilities.<\/p>\n The net result should be a satellite architecture that is more nimble and more readily adaptable to changing missions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe way the flight software and the payload software today are coded, it is very mission specific. When we do an upload it\u2019s just to fix an issue,\u201d Phares said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With smart sats, by comparison, \u201cwe can constantly update the capabilities of the satellite, as opposed to just fixing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n