Author Topic: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program  (Read 43595 times)

Offline savuporo

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Re: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program
« Reply #60 on: 12/09/2014 10:42 pm »
So launch deal was apparently signed between NovaWurks and Spaceflight Inc for a late 2015 launch

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/12/09/54124/#more-54124

They are not showing which launcher though
http://spaceflightservices.com/manifest-schedule/

This is very much the satlet demo mission though, not a whole lot of servicing
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Offline ionzide

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Re: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program
« Reply #61 on: 12/15/2014 08:45 am »
So launch deal was apparently signed between NovaWurks and Spaceflight Inc for a late 2015 launch

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/12/09/54124/#more-54124

They are not showing which launcher though
http://spaceflightservices.com/manifest-schedule/

This is very much the satlet demo mission though, not a whole lot of servicing

A couple other links mention the Falcon 9 perhaps...

Quote
The mission will be the first for Sherpa, a free-flying secondary payload dispenser equipped with its own power, propulsion and pointing systems, according to Curt Blake, Spaceflight’s president. It is designed to launch as a piggyback payload and, after separating from its carrier rocket, deploy as many as five satellites, each weighing up to 300 kilograms, in their desired orbits.

Blake declined to name the rocket that will launch the tug on its maiden flight except to say that it will be a U.S. commercial mission. Spaceflight, which arranges rides for piggyback payloads on various rockets, has previously said it planned to demonstrate Sherpa on flights of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launcher. - See more at: http://spacenews.com/darpa-satlets-to-fly-on-sherpas-debut-mission/#sthash.WC84bsxF.dpuf

Quote
On Tuesday, Seattle-based launch broker Spaceflight announced that it has signed an agreement to carry Phoenix’s first spacecraft. It’s slated to launch some time in the third quarter of 2015 as a secondary payload on a rocket. Although Spaceflight has not yet identified the rocket provider for this launch and could not discuss it, I have been told by several people that the mission will go up on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/darpas-satellite-revival-program-gears-up-for-first-launch


Offline MP99

Re: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program
« Reply #62 on: 12/16/2014 04:53 pm »
#15 by Jim on 15 Nov, 2013 23:42
Quote from: Solman on 26 Oct, 2013 20:00
Your five year old laptop might be quite valuable to someone who can't afford a new one but can afford a battery.

But replacing the battery costs as much as a new laptop


If you're talking about real batteries for actual laptops, then "unsubstantiated".

If that was a metaphor, then as you were.

Cheers, Martin

Offline jongoff

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Re: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program
« Reply #63 on: 12/16/2014 07:59 pm »
It'll be cool to see NovaWurks satlets fly. The building a spacecraft out of modular lego bricks does come with costs, but does also allow you to do some interesting things that they haven't been able to do so far.

~Jon

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program
« Reply #64 on: 12/18/2014 07:38 am »
It'll be cool to see NovaWurks satlets fly. The building a spacecraft out of modular lego bricks does come with costs, but does also allow you to do some interesting things that they haven't been able to do so far.

~Jon

Here is video of Satlet concept, definitely has possibilities. Rockets may not be LEGO but it looks like building future satellites maybe as simple as LEGO.


Offline Prober

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Re: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program
« Reply #65 on: 01/03/2015 01:06 pm »
NSF friends can someone just give a very simple idea what DARPA is looking for here?

As I see it.....the USAF had a Servicing program it was called the Space Shuttle and they walked away from that program.

So is this just about costs?

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Offline Jim

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Re: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program
« Reply #66 on: 01/03/2015 04:32 pm »
NSF friends can someone just give a very simple idea what DARPA is looking for here?

As I see it.....the USAF had a Servicing program it was called the Space Shuttle and they walked away from that program.


No, the Shuttle was NASA's and it did not fly polar.

Offline jongoff

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Re: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program
« Reply #67 on: 01/03/2015 06:43 pm »
NSF friends can someone just give a very simple idea what DARPA is looking for here?

As I see it.....the USAF had a Servicing program it was called the Space Shuttle and they walked away from that program.

So is this just about costs?

Well, my company was involved in Phase 1. What they were originally looking for was a way of changing the cost equation on spacecraft by attacking the cost of the spacecraft bus. The idea being that while you take a performance hit for a modular bus design based on snapping together a large number of Satlet "lego bricks", that the production rate for those lego bricks could be really high compared to satellites (enough to do an assembly line), and you could drastically cut the price of designing and building spacecraft buses. A bus made of modular chunks might also be more graceful in its failure/degradation modes, and it might be possible to remove/replace defective lego-bricks, or add new upgraded versions as newer versions come out.

In order to make that satlet vision work, they needed to include some robotic assembly capabilities, and they also needed a way of getting lego bricks to GEO affordably (PODS). And ultimately they wanted to tie it together into some sort of a demo, so they picked the idea of harvesting an aperture (antenna dish) off of a dead GEO commsat to build the new satellite around. The apertures are one of the few pieces that don't degrade or get obsolete as quickly, and they also don't break up conveniently into lego-bricks. So if you could demonstrate the ability to reuse old antennas with new electronics and new bus hardware, it could be interesting. Combine that with scratching DARPA's spacecraft servicing itch by demonstrating the ability to modify a spacecraft on orbit, and you have the original plan.

Ultimately, I think the overall concept fell out of favor. There's always been a strong interest in space robotics at DARPA (primarily for servicing), and having a way of getting stuff to GEO (the PODS were interesting), but the specific servicing mission they were going after no longer seemed so compelling--maybe due to the launch costs or the cost of developing the most sophisticated robotic servicing spacecraft ever on a shoestring budget.

Not sure where things are going now, as our part was cut from the program a few months into Phase 2. But it sounds like they still want to make progress on the individual elements of the program, but are waiting for new ideas to try and wrap them into a new overall in-space demo.

~Jon

In order to make that work, they also needed a way o

Offline Danderman

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Re: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program
« Reply #68 on: 04/12/2015 02:13 pm »
http://www.darpa.mil/our_work/tto/programs/phoenix.aspx

I noticed that the program goals don't seem as ambitious as earlier reports.


Offline Danderman

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Re: DARPA Phoenix Satellite Service and Salvage program
« Reply #69 on: 12/24/2016 01:51 am »
This program seems to have dropped from our radar.

Should it go in the "Dead Event" section?
« Last Edit: 12/24/2016 01:52 am by Danderman »

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