AF Funded ORSSats

Abstract

Operationally Responsive Space projects are optimized for prioritized theater use and/or surge, augmentation and replenishment of traditional space capabilities. The ORS Concept of Operations (CONOPS) drives the need for satellites featuring high degrees of modularity, standard interface vehicles, and the use of plug and play payloads and buses. Responsive satellites will be capable of rapid satellite initialization and be networked with other national security space, air and surface systems. ORS projects provide a broad range of capabilities directly supporting warfighter needs. Potential missions include communications, data exfiltration; blue-force situational awareness; positioning, navigation, and timing; weather; and battlefield intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). The highest priority for the ORS office is the ORS-1 that is being fielded to respond to CENTCOM’s urgent need to rapidly provide ISR for theater warfighters. The second priority of the ORS office is to continue maturing ORS enabling elements including the Radio Frequency (RF) Modular Payload mission kit (this mission kit will enable Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Communications, and Tactical Electronic Support capabilities. The remaining priorities for the ORS office are to satisfy the high priority needs for augmentation and reconstitution, such as Missile Warning, Wideband Protected Communication, Narrowband Communication, Space Situational Awareness, and Hyperspectral Imagery. The capabilities planned for RF Modular Payload mission kits were selected to systematically mature the ORS enabling elements to fully meet the USSTRATCOM-specified responsiveness timelines and the 2007 NDAA cost targets. This includes the development of a modular open system architecture employing plug and play standards, such as a Rapid Response Space Works, a modular space vehicle (MSV) and integration with the Multi-Mission Satellite Operations Center (MMSOC). These funds will support on-going analyses, employment and integration of new concepts and methods for enhancing the responsiveness of the existing capabilities and quick reaction opportunities, such as TacSat-4 launch and orbital support, and the Jumpstart rapid development, integration, and launch demonstrations. When ORS-appropriate USSTRATCOM urgent needs arrive during the execution year, programmed ORS projects are reevaluated and may be modified or even delayed to meet the urgent needs, thus making the urgent needs the number one priority. ORS Mission Kit Enabler Projects include satellite vehicles, launch, integration, operational experimentation, and interim transitions from ORS derived solutions to operational capabilities. Each mission kit also includes enabler investments to improve the responsiveness and lower the cost of the designing, fabricating, launching and operating ORS space capabilities. These mission kits culminate in on-orbit capabilities ready for operational experimentation and, when desired, transition to enduring operations. ORS is working with the University of Hawaii’s (U of H) Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) and Sandia National Laboratory on the Low Earth Orbit Nanosatellite Integrated Defense Autonomous Systems (LEONIDAS) program. LEONIDAS is to design, fabricate, launch, and perform on-orbit operations of small and micro-satellites for early detection of missile launches by hostile forces. ORS is developing Common Data Link hardware for space use.

Document Details

• Document Type: Project
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2012
• Source ID: 64A020_0604857F_4_3600_PB_2012

Tags

Readers

• Aerospace Engineering.
• Enterprise Information Systems Architecture and Joint Command Capability Interoperability Support.

Technology Areas

• Autonomy
• Autonomy - UAVs
• Microelectronics
• Space
• Space - Satellites