Aquila - High Performance Small Satellite for Moving Target Indication for maritime domain awareness

“Aquila” aims to uniquely support DOD requirements to field global command and control sensing networks that are resilient, pervasive, and affordable by proving the viability of robotically manufacturing and assembling a radar payload in orbit utilizing Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapters (ESPA) rings as a construction base. Current practices in fielding space-based radars leads to significant gaps in maritime domain awareness due to cost, capability, and persistence limitations. To effectively hold the global commons under constant custody, a very large number of satellite payloads are required. Traditional large radars are unique, costly designs that require dedicated launch support. Small satellite radar missions avoid the cost of traditional methods, but are both power and size constrained, as solar panel and array surface areas are limited by the volume between the ESPA ring and launch vehicle fairing. Current commercial LEO radar constellations require dedicated launches, reducing availability and increasing overall system cost. Lastly, dedicated launch of single satellites via small launch vehicles provide better launch access but suffer from power and aperture size limitations which negate the ability to meet desired military utility. Made In Space (MIS) and CesiumAstro (Cesium) seek to integrate the unique capabilities offered by our teams to solve the above problem areas. • In Cesium’s Phase I submission to the DARPA Blackjack program, payload cost ceiling and the requirement to meet common bus configurations limited both array size and power available. While the design showed the ability to provide military utility in a 2.17 m2 array, analysis also showed that a larger array with greater power available would be able to detect a larger target set. This proposal takes advantage of initial design work and improves upon delivered military capability by proposing an array five times larger with significantly greatly power available. • Enabling this payload is the MIS EAGLE system which repurposes an, otherwise disposed of, ESPA Ring and robotically transforms it into the structural and service backplane for a 10m2 Cesium S-Band phased array on-orbit. • Cesium’s commercial active phased array technology provides a highly capable active phased array system at an attractive cost point. Before deployment, the Active Phased Array (APA) is packed within the unused ESPA volume during launch and built into a single coherent aperture on orbit via MIS’s robotic assembly. • MIS’s Archinaut system will support the power requirements of this large aperture by manufacturing two 10m solar arrays in orbit, providing >5kW from a single ESPA launch slot. Proposing to the Focus Area of High-Performance Small Satellite, this combination of large APA and capable power system results in an order of magnitude more capability at a lower cost than currently possible from ESPA class satellites.