SBIR Phase I: An Interplanetary Smallsat for Fast Connectivity, Navigation, and Positioning

SBIR 第一阶段：用于快速连接、导航和定位的行星际小型卫星

• 批准号: 2322390
• 负责人: Jose Velazco
• 金额: $ 27.45万
• 依托单位: CHASCII INC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2024-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322390&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Interplanetary; Smallsat; Fast

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to deploy a commercial space platform in cislunar and deep space to provide fast connectivity, navigation, and positioning to space users. This cislunar network will include nodes in low-Earth Orbit, Geosynchronous orbit and Lunar orbit to create a secure and covert gigabit network for scientific, commercial, and military applications. This project will develop a revolutionary spacecraft that will be the heart of the new network. This product will be a small yet nimble spacecraft that uses lasers, a novel architecture, and machine learning software to provide high-data-rate omnidirectional coverage of its surroundings. The company plans to place clusters of this satellite as network nodes. It is envisioned that space users can use these interplanetary small satellites (and their network) for gigabit connectivity as well as accurate navigation and positioning in cislunar and deep space.This project will develop a novel small satellite with embedded optical communications systems. It will be equipped with two distinct optical communications terminals, one for long-range connectivity and the second one for short-range, swarm connectivity. The small satellite’s long-range terminal consists of six optical transceivers evenly distributed around the body of the spacecraft to provide omnidirectional coverage. The transceivers will be fully integrated into and commanded by a fast processor. The small satellite will have a coherent modulation architecture operating at around 1550 nanometers. The transmitter design to be pursued during this project includes a distributed feedback laser diode, a phase modulator, an optical amplifier, a circulator, and a collimator. All these components will be connected by optical fibers. The seed laser will produce a 10-milliwatt laser beam, which is passed through the phase modulator where it is modulated at high speeds (10-100 gigabit per second). After the modulator, the modulated beam is boosted via an optical amplifier and passed through a collimator to generate a collimated, high-power beam. The collimator launches the beam into free space and directs it to a steering mirror for coverage of its field of regard. It is envisioned that the system could achieve transmission speeds as high as 100 gigabit per second.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在在地月和深空部署商业空间平台，为空间用户提供快速连接、导航和定位。该地月网络将包括近地轨道、地球同步轨道上的节点。该项目将开发一种革命性的航天器，该航天器将成为新网络的核心。使用激光器、新颖的架构和机器学习软件来提供对其周围环境的高数据速率全向覆盖，该公司计划将这颗卫星的集群作为网络节点，预计太空用户可以使用这些星际小型卫星。及其网络），用于千兆位连接以及地月和深空的精确导航和定位。该项目将开发一颗具有嵌入式光通信系统的新型小型卫星，它将配备两个不同的光通信终端，一个用于远程。连接性和第二个用于短距离集群连接，该小型卫星的远程终端由均匀分布在航天器主体周围的六个光学收发器组成，这些收发器将完全集成到快速处理器中并由其控制。这颗小型卫星将采用工作在 1550 纳米左右的相干调制架构。该项目中要实现的发射机设计包括分布式反馈激光二极管、相位调制器、光放大器和光放大器。所有这些组件将通过光纤连接，种子激光器将产生 10 毫瓦激光束，该激光束通过相位调制器进行高速调制（每秒 10-100 吉比特）。经过调制器后，调制光束通过光学放大器增强并通过准直器，产生准直的高功率光束。准直器将光束发射到自由空间并引导它。预计该系统可实现高达每秒 100 吉比特的传输速度。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势进行评估，被认为值得支持。以及更广泛的影响审查标准。