ESPA Based Satellite Bus

A significant number of space launches, both government and commercial, have considerable mass margin that could be used by inserting an EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) ring.  This ring could be transformed into a standard spacecraft bus with capability to add up to five different payloads or be utilized as a spacecraft itself.  The transformed ESPA will have one of six of the available slots occupied by a small satellite.  This satellite can be designed to provide power, electrical, mechanical, logical, and communications capability to other ESPA-attached payloads. Under this Phase I SBIR we will develop a small satellite to occupy one slot of the ESPA ring and provide life and communications support for up to five independent payloads.  The Cubesat standard is now being embraced by universities and governments around the world, and the number of funded Cubesat projects is growing.  We are taking the best of the Cubesat capabilities and adding those to the ESPA-Sat.  Not only can ESPA-based satellite reduce the cost of launching multiple satellites, but the concentration of launch opportunities per ESPA-based satellite bus will promote small-sat development in the direction of standardized packaging, ultimately leading to savings in small satellite development, construction, and operation. BENEFIT: By providing a low-cost platform to launch small satellites into available payload slots that would have flown empty anyway, we will promote small satellite development by universities, research institutions, the private commercial sector, and the government.   Because the ESPA-Sat will provide power, electrical, mechanical, logical, and communication needs to the attached payloads, it will further reduce the cost of small satellite development by the user community.  This is a low-cost, high-payoff opportunity.  It will advance the state-of-the-art by providing an inexpensive and flexible spacecraft bus to the aerospace community.  When this objective is attained, LGarde envisions the Air Force, other branches of the DoD, the government, universities and other research institutions to be potential customers of this technology.  For instance, there were numerous opportunities in the history of L''Garde itself to fly its revolutionary inflatable/rigidizable structure technology, but were lost because there was no affordable possibility for launch, other than modified Russian RV launch vehicles, with concomitant glaring ITAR issues.