The Defense Department's research agency seeks to build clusters of small spacecraft that work together and share information.
In the near future, satellites may come in pieces. That’s the goal of a new effort launched by the Defense Departments research and development agency — to fly clusters of small spacecraft that communicate with each other and which work together to perform the work of a traditional single-piece satellite.
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s System F6 program seeks to develop technologies to build and deploy “disaggregated” satellites. These groups of small satellites would share information and a variety of capabilities over their own wireless networks, such as communications links, sensors and data storage.
By spreading out these various capabilities among a group of replaceable spacecraft, DARPA hopes to create platforms that are much more survivable, adaptable and repairable than traditional satellites.
A recent proposal outlined the System F6 program and described its three parts:
- The F6 Developer’s Kit (FDK): A set of open-source, exportable, non-proprietary interface standards, protocols, software and reference information that will allow any participating company to develop a spacecraft design that can participate in a satellite cluster.
- The F6 Tech Package (F6TP): This is network computing device that physically connects to and provides data switching and routing between the spacecraft bus, wireless inter-module transceivers, shared resource payloads such as high performance computing, data storage and mission payloads such as sensors and hosted payloads.
- The F6 On-Orbit Demonstration Testbed: This will provide affordable satellite buses for the demonstration cluster, host the F6TP and inter-satellite communications crosslinks on each spacecraft, provide or host additional payloads, and provide support for integration and orbital demonstration operations.
An in-person proposers’ day will take place May 3 in Arlington, Va. At the event, DARPA will provide information on the progress of the System F6 program’s multiple efforts and provide details of the System F6 On-Orbit Demonstration Testbed broad agency announcement.
DARPA is also interested in maximizing the number of non-traditional performers for more innovative concepts, agency officials said. The proposal process is open to small businesses, academic and research institutions, and first-time government contractors. There are also no restrictions on the citizenship or nationality of proposer’s day attendees, DARPA officials said.