NASA has planned, or is planning, a wide range of high orbit and deep space related missions in support of Earth sciences, planetary sciences, and Heliosphere studies. Science missions such as Astrobiology (e.g microorganisms), radiometrics, environmental monitoring (e.g. weather), relay communications, lunar resources, planetary magnetometry, etc. are increasingly under consideration by NASA to be implemented by SmallSats. As technology advances, these smaller spacecraft will become ever more viable to undertake these, and a wide range of other NASA missions, along with technology qualification missions. The significant attention to enabling rad hard versions of the modular architecture in the proposed program will allow the same technology to be used for SmallSat and CubeSat missions aimed at operations in and beyond LEO orbits including MEO (Van Allan belt) as to address the needs of high value science missions. The same technology/products that can make have an impact on planned NASA science missions can make transformational impacts to such extended SmallSat missions that aim to deploy in MEO/GEO orbit (gamma ray and proton detectors, solar observation) and beyond (solar particle/space particle environment assessments) as to support NASA mission probe programs.
Several DoD agencies can immediately benefit and are obvious customers for the new modular reconfigurable EPS solution that offers SWaP advantages and significantly higher radiation tolerance. This especially includes establishing SmallSat capabilities at higher earth orbits where the satellite subsystems will now be exposed to much higher levels of radiation and thermal excursion than LEO orbit satellites. Other space launch organizations such as CSA and ESA and USA-based commercial space are also pursuing SmallSat missions and similarly looking to acquire such capabilities as proposed to enable new areas of science and space operation such as re-entry, debris removal, climate change monitoring and many more. Such organizations are ready customers for the proposed new DEPS EPS solution. While commercial customers purchased less than 10 percent of the satellites weighing from 2009 to 2013, those customers are likely to dominate the business from 2014 to 2016. More than 70% of future SmallSats/CubeSats will be in the 1 to 50 kilograms range and primarily used for Earth observation, communication, and remote sensing purposes representing a growth industry for its proposed DREPS products.
More »