Single Board Satellite for VLEO SBEM

The United States Space Force requires a new capability to perform space-based environmental monitoring in very low Earth orbit (VLEO). This presents two major challenges. First, because VLEO is such a low altitude, it has a substantial amount of drag, limiting mission lifetimes. Second, space-weather sensing typically uses approaches that do not yield a true three-dimensional model of either the space-weather environment or drag environment.To overcome these challenges, Aspect Aerospace proposes the Single-Board Satellite (SBS) hardware platform. The SBS is based on a unique approach to spacecraft miniaturization: the entire satellite is a single printed circuit board, able to be mass produced in any PCB assembly house in the US. This spacecraft architecture enables an "aircraft carrier on-orbit" model – a constellation of 20-100 satellites, able to be independently tasked and deployed from a single host spacecraft. By leveraging production at scale, the spacecraft cost is reduced to tens of thousands of dollars per spacecraft, including launch costs, allowing for an attritable “VLEO dropsonde” asset for monitoring VLEO. Aspect Aerospace has also developed a compact, powerful plasma sensor that can also directly measure neutral-particle density, to sub-meter resolution.The mission architecture at a high level is a host spacecraft, stationed in a stable orbit above VLEO, that dispenses SBSs on a regular schedule. By independently tasking and deploying SBS from the host, VLEO is kept “staffed” by satellites enabling persistent space operations. As they traverse VLEO, they can map the space weather and drag environments to high resolution, and utilize high area-to-mass ratio to “steer” the drag vector to allow orbit maneuvers if needed. If one detects an anomaly of interest, a cloud of 5-10 SBS can be tasked and dispensed to probe the anomaly’s transience and fine structures to high accuracy. Aspect’s plasma sensor can measure to 0.7-m resolution, finer than any other known plasma sensor. Multiple SBSs passing through an anomaly can yield sub-minute-by-minute time resolution of the entire event.The proposed SBS leverages prior work done by Aspect and the team’s proven space-flight pedigree for the underlying technology. Specifically, in prior work, the team at Aspect successfully flew both the space-weather sensor and a fully functional 2U Cubesat nicknamed “Jagsat-1”. The proposed Phase II will leverage Jagsat-1’s design and condense its four flight boards into a single circuit board — constructing working, TRL-6 SBS units. The team will leverage the flight software to develop a complete software stack for the SBS and develop a plan for ground station and environmental data management. The team will prototype a deployer system and work with subcontractor Northrop Grumman to test the launch-ready SBS and to develop a design for a host spacecraft.