Amazon gears up for NASA satellite tv for pc knowledge relay demonstration

TAMPA, Fla. — Amazon is making ready to show knowledge relay providers for NASA within the spring utilizing upcoming manufacturing satellites for its Challenge Kuiper broadband constellation.

The corporate not too long ago accomplished preliminary in-orbit demonstrations after deploying a pair of prototype spacecraft final 12 months in low Earth orbit (LEO), a spokesperson for Amazon’s Kuiper Authorities Options (KGS) informed SpaceNews.

Within the subsequent part, KGS goals to transmit and obtain consultant knowledge from a mission operations heart created particularly for NASA’s Communication Providers Challenge (CSP) and the Kuiper manufacturing satellites Amazon is constructing in-house.

The corporate later plans to combine its optical communications terminal on a LEO satellite tv for pc purchased from one other producer to indicate how a 3rd occasion might route knowledge by the Kuiper community, reasonably than wait for his or her spacecraft to move an appropriate floor station.

“KGS plans to launch and function the satellite tv for pc [from a third party] late subsequent 12 months and carry out a collection of demonstrations to showcase numerous ideas of operation,” the KGS spokesperson mentioned by way of e-mail.

United Launch Alliance is slated to launch the primary batch of Kuiper manufacturing satellites on an Atlas V rocket within the final three months of 2024. Amazon’s multi-billion-dollar launch marketing campaign additionally consists of Arianespace, Blue Origin and SpaceX to assist deploy greater than 3,200 satellites.

NASA awarded contracts price a complete $278.5 million in June 2022 to KGS and 5 different corporations to show providers that would exchange its growing old fleet of relay satellites — and deal with the company’s future wants.

The opposite corporations with funded House Act Agreements underneath the Communication Providers Challenge (CSP) are SpaceX, SES Authorities Options, Telesat U.S. Providers, Viasat and Inmarsat Authorities (now a part of Viasat). 

Thomas Kacpura, deputy challenge supervisor for CSP at NASA’s Glenn Analysis Heart, not too long ago informed SpaceNews that it’s making ready to shut off the company’s Monitoring and Knowledge Relay Satellite tv for pc (TDRS) constellation to new customers round August to organize for the shift to industrial gamers.

Industrial options

SES, which operates constellations in geostationary orbit (GEO) and medium Earth orbit, final month mentioned it had efficiently examined a relay hyperlink between a MEO satellite tv for pc and a LEO flight-representative terminal on the bottom from Planet, an Earth remark operator.

An SES spokesperson mentioned the corporate sees the profitable demo as a milestone in its efforts to allow interoperable and real-time communication between satellites throughout numerous orbits. 

“Significantly for SES, through the use of our GEO & MEO providers, we imagine LEO operators will be capable of scale back the time taken to ship data from hours to minutes,” SES mentioned by way of e-mail, “enabling real-time data to be delivered and decision-making to be taken concurrently.”

The primary SES in-orbit demonstration is at present slated for January, utilizing a LEO spacecraft from Planet.

GEO operator Viasat, which at present gives low-bandwidth L-band relay providers to industrial LEO Earth remark satellites, is utilizing CSP to develop a extra compact and environment friendly service, along with a excessive throughput Ka-band functionality.

“Viasat can also be lively within the improvement of superior, variable knowledge fee free area optic terminals for even larger knowledge fee missions,” mentioned Michael Maughan, vp of area and mission programs for Viasat Authorities Methods.

Viasat’s first in-orbit demo is slated for March and can use a LEO spacecraft from Loft Orbit, which buys satellite tv for pc buses from a number of distributors and outfits them with payloads flown on behalf of consumers.

Satellite tv for pc knowledge relay providers promise LEO operators a number of benefits, in accordance with Novaspace (previously Euroconsult) principal adviser Maxime Puteau, starting from real-time knowledge transmission to larger throughput and smaller floor station footprints.

Nevertheless, these providers additionally require further {hardware} on a person’s satellite tv for pc, including mass, complexity and additional prices that come on high of any subscription worth, Puteau added, which would want to suit into the client’s value construction.

“Governments and protection customers are the more than likely early adopters however industrial customers could materialize too,” he mentioned.

“Like several options/providers throughout the business, it takes a robust vendor push to succeed in a turning level the place sometime the great to have turns into essential.”

Whereas Puteau sees a necessity for satellite tv for pc communication operators to diversify their companies, he cautioned a “construct it, and they’ll come” enterprise technique has traditionally proved difficult for the area business.

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