Satellite Reuse Program Combines Resources from Government, Commercial Industry
A program aimed at repurposing satellite components while in orbit can further collaboration between the government and the commercial satellite industry, industry and government officials said. Currently in its first phase, the Phoenix program is headed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA contracted with companies to research, develop and implement ways to take portions of decommissioned satellites and repurpose them. “Private industry is doing the bulk of the technology development under Phase 1 of the Phoenix effort, and thus is helping provide innovations to ultimately lower the cost of re-use and re-purposing components on retired assets in space,” David Barnhart, Phoenix program manager, said in an e-mail.
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The Phoenix mission is aimed at taking antennae, solar arrays and other parts of retired and non-working satellites in geosynchronous orbit “to create new space systems at greatly reduced cost,” DARPA said on its website (http://xrl.us/bnsr37). The process includes developing nanosatellites, or “satlets,” to be sent up into space on commercial hosted payloads. The satlets, housed in payload orbital delivery systems (PODS), would be attached to the antenna of a non-functioning satellite, “essentially creating a new space system,” it said. One of the benefits of the program involves helping to mitigate space debris, the agency has said (CD June 12 p6).
The first phase, which will last about 14 months, is the principal innovation phase in discovering and developing “the needed key technologies to enable the Phoenix mission,” said Barnhart. The agency and contractors also will develop mission design activities that will identify the retired candidate asset, develop the Phoenix spacecraft bus, and build additional primary robotic arms for the agency’s Front-end Robotics Enabling Near-term Demonstration project, he said.
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), Altius, Intelsat General Corp., an Intelsat subsidiary, and other companies have been contracted to work on various aspects of the program. SS/L is working on figuring out how to get the satlets into orbit, said Al Tadros, SS/L civil and Defense Department business vice president. SSL “will be defining how to launch the satlets on our communications satellites and help DARPA flesh out the concept,” he said in an interview. SS/L also is considering the importance of both policy and regulatory and international coordination, he said: It’s a program that “considers all aspects of collaboratively operating a geostationary orbit."
Intelsat will look at the policy, insurance and risk aspects of the Phoenix program, said Bryan Benedict, Intelsat general program manager for the Phoenix program. “We are trying to evaluate anything in the current international policy or the U.S. licensing laws which would put the Phoenix mission in jeopardy because it would be violating some sort of pre-established agreement.” Intelsat is assessing the legal policy and licensing implications on a commercial operator taking the PODS into space and dropping them off in or near geostationary orbit, he said in an interview. Intelsat aims “to provide some sort of guidance, risk communication and suggestions to DARPA on how they can minimize the overall risk for the program,” he said.
DARPA and its contractors said a public-private partnership, like Phoenix, can lead to expanded use of hosted payloads in government and further advancements in the commercial sector. The long-term benefit to DOD is greater bandwidth to support operations worldwide, Barnhart said. “Transitioning the techniques and process learned from Phoenix to the commercial sector may help develop a sustaining service to the DOD at much lower cost to the government.” Following completion of the DARPA mission goals, the robotic capability may become available to assist with recovery from satellite anomalies, such as assisting with an incomplete deployment, said Benedict.
Input from commercial operators is critical for the Phoenix mission, Benedict said. “There has to be a reason for the commercial operator to want to take the hosted PODS to orbit.” The incentive “has to be sufficient to compensate for whatever additional risks or additional cost the satellite owner might incur,” he said. Other companies include ATK Aerospace Group, MDA Information Systems and NovaWurks.
Although the government still adheres to traditional methods of acquiring commercial services, its collaboration with the private section is improving, said Tadros. There are areas of U.S. Air Force missions that are “still very traditional in their acquisition style and their architectures,” he said. He commended the Air Force for establishing a hosted payload office in its Space and Missile Systems Center, and he pointed to SS/L’s deal with NASA to deliver a new propulsion system this year. Over the last year, there’s been a dramatic uptick “with regards to the more traditional kind of government programs looking at alternatives to reduce costs and I think that’s all a plus,” he said. Government space policies have encouraged greater collaboration between the government and the commercial satellite industry, Benedict said. “The new U.S. national space policy has gone a lot further to encourage these government partnerships than previous space policies,” he said: “We're seeing the budgets from the U.S. government requiring greater, more efficient interaction with the commercial world.”