Is there anything known about the configuration of this launcher? Number of stages, engine type, payload capability ...?
Greetings to everyone,I'm new to this forum and I'm really interesting in small satellites and rockets. Searching what's available online one of Space One's press releases describes the intended configuration of their rocket:"Configuration: three solid propellant stages and a liquid propellant kick stage, PBS (Post Boost Stage) Overall length: Approx. 18meters Liftoff mass: Approx. 23metric-tons"The payload envelope diameter will be 1,15 m, that got me thinking that the actual rocket diameter could be around 1,20-1,40 m. So I think that the third solid stage and the PBS could be related to the upper stages of the Epsilon rocket. The first and second stages might be completely new designs. In my opinion it seems more a "miniEpsilon" than a "maxi-SS520".
I'm very dubious that a solid-based smallsat launcher has any kind of future in the market, but I like solid rockets, I like Japanese rockets, and I also just think it looks good. I'm rooting for them. Maybe they can find a niche in Japan.
Quote from: JEF_300 on 06/18/2020 03:01 amI'm very dubious that a solid-based smallsat launcher has any kind of future in the market, but I like solid rockets, I like Japanese rockets, and I also just think it looks good. I'm rooting for them. Maybe they can find a niche in Japan.Yes. Consider the current Pegasus XL. $40m for 443Kg to LEO. It's been a while since that launched. Solids make great weapon systems though. The only justification for a solid systems seem to be a) You have in house skills (probably because you're already a defense contractor) b) You plan to stitch a bunch of them from someone else together (as Orbital did) so its the cheap option c)You want to start a covert ICBM programme.Does Cannon have a division that already builds missiles? Option b puts your prices at the mercy of your main suppliersOption C makes some sense if you think that Japan is very worried by North Korean missile and nuclear testing. Solids only really win for a)Batch production (like for ICBMs) with b) Long delays before or between launches (like ICBM's and other missiles).Somehow they never work out as cheap as people hope.
and the approximate pad as a link, sadly the overhead imagery hasn't been updated lately
Quote from: john smith 19 on 06/19/2020 08:51 amQuote from: JEF_300 on 06/18/2020 03:01 amI'm very dubious that a solid-based smallsat launcher has any kind of future in the market, but I like solid rockets, I like Japanese rockets, and I also just think it looks good. I'm rooting for them. Maybe they can find a niche in Japan.Yes. Consider the current Pegasus XL. $40m for 443Kg to LEO. It's been a while since that launched. Solids make great weapon systems though. The only justification for a solid systems seem to be a) You have in house skills (probably because you're already a defense contractor) b) You plan to stitch a bunch of them from someone else together (as Orbital did) so its the cheap option c)You want to start a covert ICBM programme.Does Cannon have a division that already builds missiles? Option b puts your prices at the mercy of your main suppliersOption C makes some sense if you think that Japan is very worried by North Korean missile and nuclear testing. Solids only really win for a)Batch production (like for ICBMs) with b) Long delays before or between launches (like ICBM's and other missiles).Somehow they never work out as cheap as people hope. Option B, as IHI Aerospace is making the solid rocket motor portion. Whether there is back room METI/MoD dealings to sustain the industrial base is a different issue. Epsilon (and now Epsilon S) according to some defense hawk interpretations is an ICBM manufacturing demo program. There were similar murmurs that this rocket could be used as an ASAT launcher, but then the obvious question is where's the payload/seeker/warhead?Canon Electronics Inc. president had previously stated that they will not produce military systems though. The Canon group does not make missiles, and as far as I am aware don't make (obvious) missile components. There are some people who were formerly employed at IHI Aerospace, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and other defense contractors who are with Canon electronics Inc. now though.The better question is, with Epsilon S rolling up with 500kg SSO range, that makes the market for a 100-150kg SSO rocket smaller, at least for japanese domestic payloads. Batch SRM production to cut costs requires a fairly large manifest (and to be fair, they allegedly want to launch up to 20 times a year once production is in full swing), but so far no launch manifest has been disclosed that could sustain that. Spaceflight's CEO may have misspoken recently, but he seemed to suggest that Canon Electronics Inc. is starting their own earth observation constellation, and Canon Electronics Inc. themselves do claim CE-SAT-1B is a mass production prototype sat. So if they are launching their own earth observation constellation, that might cover some of the early launch manifest and provide launch reliability proof to get others to ride with them, but they themselves have not announced a constellation.
Spaceflight's CEO may have misspoken recently, but he seemed to suggest that Canon Electronics Inc. is starting their own earth observation constellation, and Canon Electronics Inc. themselves do claim CE-SAT-1B is a mass production prototype sat. So if they are launching their own earth observation constellation, that might cover some of the early launch manifest and provide launch reliability proof to get others to ride with them, but they themselves have not announced a constellation.
Quote from: Asteroza on 06/19/2020 08:52 amand the approximate pad as a link, sadly the overhead imagery hasn't been updated latelyHere's a more recent view:https://satellites.pro/Japan_map#33.549657,135.880966,15Where do you think the tracking station might be located? The lodges/camping to the south west of the site appear to be also closed on Google's rather recent Street View (maybe bought by the company?). This area is 1 km away from the launchpad and appears to have clear view of the possible rocket's path. Or maybe it should be on the top of one of the nearby hills?
Quote from: Asteroza on 06/19/2020 09:19 am Spaceflight's CEO may have misspoken recently, but he seemed to suggest that Canon Electronics Inc. is starting their own earth observation constellation, and Canon Electronics Inc. themselves do claim CE-SAT-1B is a mass production prototype sat. So if they are launching their own earth observation constellation, that might cover some of the early launch manifest and provide launch reliability proof to get others to ride with them, but they themselves have not announced a constellation.For an observation constellation, you don't want a 150kg-class vehicle, you want to launch a full plane each time, that's cheaper. So something like Epsilon would make a lot more sense once past the prototype stage.
Allegedly they are also working on a smaller satellite design, larger than cubesat but smaller than CE-SAT-1B. This might be CE-SAT-2B, it isn't clear. But a smaller design would allow cluster launches, provided they have a means of propulsion to spread out along the plane, or expect the liquid kick stage to do that for them.
For the rideshare mission, Flight Software (FSW) was improved so that number of guidance steps can be chosen in order to inject each payloads into individual orbits. Moreover, the newly developed guidance mode, the relative altitude guidance mode, was applied to the fourth Epsilon.
It's nice that they are trying to shift to remote sensing data sales as their primary income stream, but that's a hard fight against established oldspace and newspace alike. PlanetLabs in particular would their biggest competitor, and they have a constellation up now and are in mass production of 3U class sats. As far as anyone can see, Canon Electronics Inc. has yet to publicly demonstrate they actually have mass production capability and are not a boutique/bespoke/hand manufacturing operation. Also, to do data sales you need a good data management team, a good image analysis team, and a good customer interface team...