Highly-Maneuverable Commercial Satellite Bus

This proposal is for a DoD-specific modification to an existing commercial solution to meet DoD tactically responsive space (TacRS) needs.áApex Space (or Apex) is a manufacturer of commercial satellite buses currently being delivered off an active commercial bus production line. Apexĺs Aries bus, a ~100 kg platform, is a productized satellite bus engineered for configurable performance and with modular payload interfaces. This configurability and modularity, described in further detail below, makes Aries a common bus platform that can accommodate different mission payloads with no mission-specific bus non-recurring engineering (NRE) required, greatly enhancing speed to launch readiness.áApex believes that Ariesĺs configurability, modularity, and design-for-manufacturability can offer significant advantages in both speed and mission flexibility for TacRS. The enhancement proposed in this effort will develop a new, highly-maneuverable, 6 degree-of-freedom (6DOF) propulsion configuration of the Aries bus. The end result of this effort will be a commercial bus that can be rapidly manufactured, rapidly integrated with different payload sensors, and enhanced with 6DOF maneuverability enabling SDA missions including rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO). á