24th January 2023 – AstroForge and OrbAstro Announce Asteroid Mission to fly in 2023
NewSpace pioneers launching the first fully commercial deep-space mission ever
24th January 2023 – AstroForge Inc., a California-based asteroid mining company, recently announced that it has signed a contract with Orbital Astronautics Ltd (OrbAstro), a satellite and in-orbit service provider, to fly a 100kg-class spacecraft into deep space for an asteroid survey mission. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch in late 2023 with Intuitive Machines, a leading space exploration, infrastructure and services company, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission serves as both a prospecting activity and stepping-stone towards AstroForge’s ambitions for asteroid mining.
The OrbAstro ORB-50 satellite platform (100kg-class) will host an array of AstroForge payloads associated with assessing asteroids. The spacecraft will utilise a Lunar slingshot and a Dawn Aerospace propulsion system for the 8-month transit to the asteroid, that is in a heliocentric orbit approximately 22 million miles from Earth.
“With a finite supply of precious metals on Earth, we have no other choice than to look to deep space to source cost-effective and sustainable materials,” said Matt Gialich, CEO and co-founder of AstroForge. “As we embark on our journey to preserve our planet’s future, we’re grateful to our technology partners like OrbAstro for helping us to become the most efficient, cost-effective asteroid mining solution in the world.“
Dr Ash Dove-Jay, CEO and Founder of OrbAstro, said, “Deep-space has until now only been within the remit of governments. This is the first fully commercial deep-space mission ever, it is a significant milestone for the space industry. The calibre, speed, and ambition at AstroForge is inspiring – and it is fantastic to forge ahead on this journey together.”
Having recently moved into an 18,000sqft facility in south-Oxfordshire, currently undergoing refurbishment for satellite batch production, OrbAstro is well-aligned with delivering a fleet of asteroid mining spacecraft over the coming years.
Dove-Jay, “Beyond being a provider of networks of satellites for various use-cases, a central facet of the OrbAstro roadmap is to deploy space assets over the course of this decade that slash down the difficulties associated with deep-space operations required by companies like AstroForge. The challenge of deep-space communications, and simply knowing where you are and what time it is, are major cost-drivers for deep-space missions that we are working on addressing.”
OrbAstro is a highly vertically integrated space technology company that has aligned its business model with providing and supporting large constellations of satellites. Having built all state-of-the-art subsystems and satellite platforms from the ground up, the company is able to compress costs and lead-times substantially. OrbAstro has more than two dozen commercial and government satellites scheduled for launch over the coming year, many of which are pilot missions for satellite constellations.
About AstroForge
AstroForge is preserving our planet’s future while unlocking a new frontier of resources with its asteroid mining vehicle. Co-founded in 2022 by Jose Acain and Matt Gailich, AstroForge will be the first commercial company to venture into deep space. AstroForge was in the Y Combinator W22 cohort and is backed by Initialized Capital, Seven Seven Six, EarthRise, Aera VC, Liquid 2 and Soma. For more information visit www.astroforge.io or follow AstroForge on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About OrbAstro
OrbAstro is a United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Germany based space technology company that builds and supports operations of satellites, with a focus on constellations. With a build schedule of 30+ satellites in 2023, the company is refurbishing its 18,000sqft facility in south-Oxfordshire for satellite batch production as it scales, and is building out its own satellite constellation to provide low-latency access & autonomous operations services for its customers satellites. OrbAstro has received support and R&D funding to mature the technologies underpinning its products through the UK Space Agency, European Space Agency, Innovate UK, and CEOI. For more information visit https://orbastro.com/ or follow OrbAstro on LinkedIn.
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4th November 2021 – Digantara and OrbAstro Announce Service Agreement for Space Debris Tracking Mission on 6U Satellite
Agreement between international NewSpace pioneers will pilot a cutting-edge in-space debris tracking technology and service
4th November 2021 – Digantara Research and Technologies Pvt. Ltd., (Digantara), a space situational awareness company, has signed a contract with Orbital Astronautics Ltd (OrbAstro), a satellite and in-orbit service provider, to fly its SCOT (Space–based space Climate and Object Tracker) payload onboard an ORB-6 satellite platform launching towards the end of 2022. The mission will focus on demonstration of a novel LiDAR-based technology developed by Digantara, and will serve as the pilot for their LEO constellation providing a space situational awareness service.
“With the rapid growth of satellite applications and the influx of mega constellations, situational awareness of 1.0 – 10.0 cm objects, in addition to objects larger than 10 cm, is becoming increasingly important. With 96% of potentially hazardous objects still untracked, comprehensive situational awareness is required to operate assets in LEO effectively. Solving such intricate problems requires real-time insights” said Anirudh Sharma, CEO of Digantara. “Digantara’s mission is to build a sustainable near-Earth environment and access to space by providing actionable insights through meaningful collaborations with industry stakeholders. Cooperation with companies such as OrbAstro play an important role in accelerating Digantara’s objectives.”
“Through its own satellite constellation, Digantara is working towards providing a service that constellation operators, space agencies, and regulators are screaming for. By far the most effective solution to a sustainable LEO environment will be comprehensive space traffic management. This will not be possible without companies like Digantara enriching datasets on traffic.”, said Dr Ash Dove-Jay, CEO of OrbAstro. “Over the coming years, to enable the space traffic management aspect of our Guardian Network service, we are going to become reliant on partnerships with companies like Digantara.”
Beyond being a space-as-a-service provider geared towards nanosatellite and microsatellite constellations, OrbAstro is building an infrastructure to better service customer satellites, the Guardian Network. The Guardian Network provides low-latency access to customer satellites through an in-orbit data relay network, and it provides a high level of operations automation at the level of the satellite, mission, constellation, and space traffic management.
About Digantara
Digantara is a space situational awareness company building the world’s first in-situ orbital surveillance platform, SCOT. Digantara’s end to end platform, S-MAP (Space – Mission Assurance Platform) will change the way Mission design and operations are carried out in the industry today. Once deployed, Digantara’s satellite constellation will provide high fidelity data at 10x higher resolution than the current industry standards, effectively elevating space governance.
For more information visit https://digantara.co.in/
About OrbAstro
Orbital Astronautics Ltd is a United Kingdom and New Zealand based space technology company focused on providing “space as a service”, supporting companies looking to directly utilise satellites for their businesses. Orbital Astronautics is currently maturing a satellite batch production facility targeting constellation markets, and is building its own satellite constellation to provide low-latency access and autonomous operations services for customers satellites.
For more information visit https://orbastro.com/
30th September 2021 – Aistech Space and OrbAstro Announce Service Agreement for 6U Satellite Mission, Monitoring Environmental Threats with Thermal Infrared Imager
30th September 2021 — Aistech Space SL (Aistech), a high-resolution thermal imaging service provider, has signed a contract with Orbital Astronautics Ltd (OrbAstro), a satellite and in-orbit service provider, to fly its first Guardian mission scheduled for launch in Q4 2021 onboard a SpaceX dedicated rideshare mission. The OrbAstro ORB-6 satellite platform (6U-class) will host an Aistech multi-spectral imaging payload to commence commercial services addressing markets linked to environmental sustainability.
“Our mission is to work with organizations around the world to tackle critical threats to people and the environment, and build a better, more sustainable future for the next generation,” said Guillermo Valenzuela, CEO and Co-Founder of Aistech Space. “Our Guardian satellites will provide organizations with critical information for mitigating large-scale threats, such as forest fires, water waste, pollution, and illegal activity.”
Aistech is planning to deploy a constellation of 20 thermal-enabled satellites. This will be one of the first commercial constellations able to collect high-resolution thermal infrared data on demand. Information captured by Aistech’s multispectral telescope will support decision-making in the public and private sector.
“Aistech is targeting a wide-open market and we are excited to see what they achieve. To meet surging demand from companies like Aistech Space, aspiring towards large constellations to provide their services, we at OrbAstro are scaling up our satellite production throughput,” said Dr Ash Dove-Jay, CEO of OrbAstro. “Beyond this, the orbital data relay service we are building will add value to the Aistech constellation as it grows, by greatly reducing latency of the downlink of their imaging data.”
OrbAstro is highly vertically integrated, having built all subsystems and satellite platforms from the ground up. This has allowed the company to compress costs and lead-times substantially. Their ORB-class platforms specifically designed to address the constellation markets, are state-of-the-art, with Ultrascale+ and LPDDR4 based onboard computing, electric propulsion, full attitude determination and control system with dual star-trackers, S-band transceiver, and optical communications terminal as standard.
About Aistech
Aistech Space is a global space technology company that combines its expertise in geospatial analysis with its own constellation of small satellites and supporting infrastructure to provide solutions that help clients manage their assets and monitor environmental threats. Aistech Space leverages its strategic space capabilities (remote bidirectional communications, air traffic monitoring, and thermal infrared remote sensing) to help our customers make better, data-driven decisions.
For more information visit https://aistechspace.com/
About OrbAstro
Orbital Astronautics Ltd is a United Kingdom and New Zealand based space technology company focused on providing “space as a service”, supporting companies looking to directly utilise satellites for their businesses. Orbital Astronautics is currently maturing a satellite batch production facility targeting constellation markets and is building its own satellite constellation to provide low-latency access and autonomous operations services for customers satellites.
For more information visit https://orbastro.com/
23rd September 2021 – Aliena and OrbAstro Announce Service Agreement for In-Orbit Demonstration Mission of Propulsion System on 12U Satellite
Agreement between international newspace pioneers will pilot a cutting-edge smallsat propulsion system
23rd September 2021 — Aliena PTE Ltd (Aliena), a satellite propulsion provider, has signed a contract with Orbital Astronautics Ltd (OrbAstro), a satellite and in-orbit service provider, to fly its AA Multi-modal all-electric AOCS propulsion system onboard an OrbAstro ORB-12 (12U-class satellite) scheduled for launch in September 2022. The ORB-12 Strider mission will host a variety of payloads for in-orbit testing and demonstration purposes, of which the Aliena-Aurora (AA) propulsion system will be primary.
Aliena has developed a multi-modal attitude and orbit control system (AOCS) with partners from Finland, Aurora Propulsion Technologies. Sharing a common back-end architecture for the propellant, electronic control, and fluidics, the propulsion segment will comprise of Aliena’s MUlti-Staged Ignition Compact (MUSIC) Hall thruster, and Aurora’s ARM resistojets.
The AA multi-modal all-electric AOCS propulsion system will enable customers with the most demanding of mission requirements to benefit from the low-thrust-high-impulse operations of the MUSIC Hall thruster, as well as the high-thrust-low-impulse mode of operations from the ARM resistojets. This system streamlines the propulsion architecture, allowing for dual mode propulsion in a compact and integrated product for operations in formation flying satellites and advanced operations relying on propulsion as an enabler.
Beyond the AA AOCS payload, OrbAstro will be testing a variety of internally developed subsystems on the satellite, some new and some second or third generation, including:
- Optical transceiver with two-axis precision-steering mechanism for inter-satellite communications, as part of the company’s Guardian Network constellation used for data-relay and autonomous satellite operations
- Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload utilising Ka-band transmitter with high-gain antenna coupled to a 4GHz bandwidth SDR, piloting a semi-active multi-static SAR mission targeting 10cm resolution 3D imaging
- Onboard AI processing unit (100 billion neurons, 40 trillion synapses) utilised for Guardian Network satellite and space traffic management service
- Kilowatt-class thermal management system, utilising phase change heat sink and hybrid deployable solar/radiator panels
- Kilowatt-class long-life electrical power system
- Compact optical imaging system providing 1-metre ground resolution
“Though we have a variety of 3U- and 6U-class satellites scheduled for launch throughout 2022, this will be our first 12U-class launch. It will serve as a significant milestone, transitioning OrbAstro into the Microsat market”, said Dr Ash Dove-Jay, CEO of OrbAstro. “We see strong potential for partnership between Aliena and OrbAstro targeting Microsat and Smallsat constellations. This mission serves as a compelling first step”.
“Propulsion systems are key enablers for emerging satellite operations. Current solutions on the market enable certain segments for small spacecrafts, but end-users have to weigh the trade-offs in selecting their systems due to the limitations of certain systems. An integrated AOCS solution from Aurora and Aliena will allow for customers to have an array of propulsion capabilities, in a compact and integrated form-factor for fuss-free deployment” said Dr Lim Jian Wei Mark, CEO of Aliena.
“We are also proud to be able to work closely with reputable International partners from OrbAstro and Aurora Propulsion Technologies to spearhead growth in the Microsat and Smallsat community. These partnerships cement our longstanding commitment to work with International partners as we continue to add value to companies intending to democratize and commercialize space for the generations to follow.”
About Aliena
Aliena PTE Ltd is a Singapore based space propulsion provider that aims to bring space closer to home for satellite operators and terrestrial businesses. Their novel propulsion systems aim to equip disruptive next-generation satellites with advanced manoeuvring capabilities that can empower satellite operations of tomorrow. A technology spin-off from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Aliena currently operates out of a privately-owned jet propulsion test facility that gives the R&D and manufacturing environment to provide their systems to the most demanding of customers internationally.
For more information visit https://www.aliena.sg/
About OrbAstro
Orbital Astronautics Ltd is a United Kingdom and New Zealand based space technology company focused on providing “space as a service”, supporting companies looking to directly utilise satellites for their businesses. Orbital Astronautics is currently maturing a satellite batch production facility targeting constellation markets, and is building its own satellite constellation to provide low-latency access and autonomous operations services for customers satellites.
For more information visit https://orbastro.com/
About Aurora Propulsion Technologies
Aurora Propulsion Technologies’ mission is to ensure sustainable use of space, whilst prolonging the useful lifespan of satellites. Aurora’s technologies enable effective and prompt implementation of satellite position and orientation to ensure successful execution and growth of the owners’ business as well as the safe and reliable deorbiting of satellites at the end of their useful life.
For more information visit https://www.aurorapt.fi
