Millennium Space Systems
demonstrates advanced satellite constellation
technologies
July 20, 2022
Millennium Space Systems,
demonstrated several new technologies – expected and
unexpected – on orbit with their RED-EYE small
satellite constellation. Built for DARPA, the
satellite was nicknamed RED-EYE for the conspicuous
bright red "remove before flight" cover used to keep
the payload clean. The small satellites' purpose was
to demonstrate new avionics, communications devices,
on-board processors and crosslinks.
RED-EYE automated
propulsion-free orbital management and real-time
on-board processing
Millennium is well known for
wringing every possible utility out of small sats,
and this was no exception
"Millennium is well known for
wringing every possible utility out of small sats,
and this was no exception," said Jason Kim, chief
executive officer of Millennium Space Systems.
"RED-EYE showed what's possible when it comes to
advancing capabilities for small satellite
constellations and resiliency. And we're
demonstrating it on-orbit in a way that's cost and
schedule efficient."
RED-EYE was able to control a
constellation's orbital spacing through aerodynamic
drag modulation and management in low Earth orbit.
If the satellites needed to come together for a
cross-link as an example, the Millennium team
developed a simple method to manage their
aerodynamic drag simultaneously to control the
constellation spacing.
"Satellite propulsion is not
always an option – since we launched off the
International Space Station, we had to ensure that
our space vehicles were safe for the astronauts
onboard," said Doug Hulse, RED-EYE program manager,
Millennium Space Systems. "Instead, we used a novel
approach to orbital spacing which allowed us to
control the satellite constellation and perform our
demonstrations without propulsion."
The team took it a step further
with space and ground-based automation, allowing the
constellation to essentially self-control its
orbital spacing.
While designed for a nine-month
on-orbit mission life, the small satellites continue
to operate today without capability degradation.
"RED-EYE is also performing
real-time on-board processing," said Hulse. "Getting
data down from a satellite can take a long time. If
we can process raw data onboard and downlink only
the information that we want to learn, we can really
improve the latency of the system to provide that
information to the users."
The program is demonstrating
multi-path-communications on-orbit, creating a path
to networked small sat constellations. Different
communication layers can serve various functions –
resiliency and multiple parallel missions –
potentially for use in multiple domains.
The RED-EYE contract concluded
in December 2021 and the first satellite
decommissioned in June 2022. The satellites launched
in 2019 and 2020 from the ISS.
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