Small, low cost, satellites that can be rapidly fielded to augment traditional large national security satellites continue to gain attention in a time of constrained military budgets.

As highlighted in a recent article in Aviation Week and Space Technology (“Smallsats Could get Boost in Global Financial Crisis”, March 29, 2009), small satellites are less complex to build and if the Pentagon and Intelligence agencies begin to embrace their use, the current large satellite contractors will be joined by smaller, leaner companies, such as Sierra Nevada Corporation, capable of developing and launching small, high performance satellites.

Sierra Nevada Space Systems built the highly successful TacSat-2 optical imaging satellite for the Air Force Research Labs for a total cost of development and launch of about $65M. Although not as capable as National imaging satellites in terms of resolution and area coverage, it provided images at under 1m resolution direct to troops in the field using a space qualified version of a standard datalink currently used to downlink images and video from Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs).

The power of such a system can be realized by fielding as few as a dozen of these smaller satellites which could provide multiple passes per day over any position in the world, and provide the images collected direct to multiple theaters. By building many copies of the same satellite, they can be fielded very quickly and the cost savings are substantial.

As an example, Sierra Nevada is currently building 18 satellites for a commercial satellite communications company at a total cost including development and recurring build of $117M, or only $6.5M per satellite. In addition, all 18 satellites are being built and launched in 36 months.

Considering National satellite developments can take 10 years and cost in the billions of dollars, it makes tremendous sense to consider augmenting these limited high value assets with dozens of smaller satellites that can provide the persistence, global coverage, and flexibility desired by troops on the ground.

Sierra Nevada Space Systems is currently working with the Air Force Research Labs on even faster development and fielding of satellites at lower cost using modular design techniques and a plug and play architecture on the recently awarded Multi-Mission Space Vehicle (MMSV) contract.

I’ve been reading Dan Linehan’s book, “SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History.” It has some interesting history about the development of SpaceShipOne’s engine that seems to shed some light on the delays that Scaled Composites is having in developing the follow-on SpaceShipTwo vehicle.

The book recounts how Poway, Calif.-based SpaceDev won a competition against Environmental Aerospace Corporation of Miami to build SpaceShipOne’s engine. SpaceDev’s engine was lighter, performed better and was cheaper than the alternative. The company worked on the project from 2001 until 2004, when SpaceShipOne was retired after winning the Ansari X Prize.

However, the company did not continue to work with Scaled Composites on SpaceShipTwo, which is being built for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic company. Scaled decided to build the engine in house. This was reportedly due to sharp disagreements between spaceship designer Burt Rutan and SpaceDev founder Jim Benson.

Engine development was set back by a fatal explosion in July 2007 at the Scaled Composites facility in Mojave, Calif. The explosion killed three employees and injured three others. It also halted work on SpaceShipTwo for at least a year, according to Rutan.

In mid-August 2008, SpaceDev announced that it had teamed up again with Scaled. SpaceDev’s press release outlining the scope of the work:

Under the contract, SpaceDev will be the lead rocket motor team member for SpaceShipTwo and will collaborate with Scaled’s internal design team to develop a production ready hybrid rocket motor. The SpaceDev teaming will be similar to that done from 2001 through 2004 on the SpaceShipOne program, in that SpaceDev will be providing engineering services to refine the design of the hybrid rocket motor being developed by Scaled Composites, as well as providing the development, manufacture and integration of key rocket motor system components.

Also, SpaceDev will again be conducting ground tests on those motor components and will be working to assist Scaled in the full-scale rocket test program both on the ground and during SpaceShipTwo flight tests. The contract, which runs through 2012, has an initial value of approximately $15 million for work to be primarily completed over the next two years.

For Scaled to bring in a new “lead rocket motor team member” more than three years into the development process is quite significant. It demonstrates the difficulties that Scaled has experienced in developing the larger engine and the seriousness of the explosion. And it helps explain why the schedule for commercial flights keeps slipping.

PRESS RELEASE

The newly formed Space Systems business area of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) will debut at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs March 30th. The Space Systems business area was established in 2009 through the merger of SNC subsidiary, MicroSat Systems, and SpaceDev, which was acquired by SNC in late 2008.

MicroSat Systems and SpaceDev have a combined twenty year history in space, providing hardware for over 300 Earth orbiting and interplanetary missions.

The leadership of the new Space Systems business area includes:

• former Space Dev Chairman & CEO Mark Sirangelo serving as Corporate Vice President over the organization;
• John Roth, former President of MicroSat Systems as Vice President of Business Development;
• Jeff Summers, former MicroSat Chief Technical Officer as Vice President of Technology; and
• Chief Operating Officer of Sierra Nevada Corporation, Jerry Harvey, also serving as Vice President of Programs for Space Systems.

SNC Space Systems designs and manufactures satellites, spacecraft subsystems and components, and rocket propulsion systems for defense, civil government, corporate and international customers. They also provide customers with innovative, responsive, and cost effective design options for power systems, advanced miniaturized avionics, lightweight composite structures, and human spacecraft systems.

The new organization has a workforce of over 250 employees in its 4 major locations:

• Littleton, Colorado: Small satellite design and development
• Louisville, Colorado: Spacecraft mechanical subsystems, components, deployable structures, and satellite manufacturing
• Durham, North Carolina: Spacecraft electro-mechanical components, motors and actuators
• Poway, California: Hybrid propulsion and small satellites.

SNC will exhibit at the National Space Symposium to show the combined capabilities of the new space business area and plans to host numerous customer meetings and press events.

The University of Colorado at Boulder, a national leader in aerospace engineering, and SpaceDev Inc., a leading entrepreneurial space company located in Louisville, Colo., have partnered to create eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship. eSpace is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating new entrepreneurial space companies, commercializing aerospace technologies created within these companies and developing the aerospace workforce to support them.

“We believe entrepreneurial space companies are innovation engines that are transforming how we get to, utilize and explore space,” said Scott Tibbitts, executive director for eSpace. Tibbitts, an entrepreneur, founded Starsys Research and is currently the managing director for SpaceDev, a fully owned subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corp.

“By providing access to the academic resources of the university, grants to promising space entrepreneurs, and access to both the manufacturing infrastructure of SpaceDev and a network of experienced aerospace entrepreneurs, we expect to create a fertile environment for ensuring the best possible chance of success for startup space companies,” said Tibbitts.

Jeffrey M. Forbes, chair of the CU-Boulder department of aerospace engineering sciences, said of eSpace, “The availability of design project courses at the graduate level with opportunities to receive support for a new business venture may be unequaled by any other aerospace department in the nation. We intend to provide an unprecedented support structure for aerospace innovation and technology development at CU-Boulder.”

eSpace is unique in its approach to supporting the creation of these companies by lowering the barriers for entry to an absolute minimum, according to Tibbitts. More than $1 million has been provided to support the launch of the center. Its primary funding is provided by a grant from the Metro Denver WIRED initiative, or Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development, with additional funding provided by the Colorado Office of Economic Development, CU-Boulder, SpaceDev and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Located only 10 minutes from CU, SpaceDev will provide the physical space for the startup companies, allowing them to benefit from the process control systems, quality systems, clean rooms and test equipment already on its site. In addition, co-location with SpaceDev enables new entrepreneurs to “rub shoulders” with one of the nation’s premier entrepreneurial space companies. In its first year, eSpace will provide five $20,000 grants to promising entrepreneurs to help support new entrepreneurial space companies.

CU-Boulder and the Colorado space industry will be primary sources for new technologies and entrepreneurs to seed the eSpace incubator. To accelerate this process, eSpace will directly fund an eSpace Venture Design program through a $90,000 grant to the department of aerospace engineering sciences that will support three hands-on projects for graduate student teams to design aerospace technologies with commercial applications and the potential to transition into eSpace’s incubator.

The projects will be coordinated at CU by Joe Tanner, a highly accomplished former astronaut and member of the aerospace engineering sciences faculty. The initial round of eSpace-funded technologies includes:

o The “Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment” to develop nanosatellites that can improve the prediction of solar storms and their effects on Earth.

o A “Mini Jet Engine” for unmanned aerial vehicles.

o “SmartSondes for Atmospheric Sensing” to provide a remote control unmanned aerial system that can measure micro-weather effects near storms and wildfires.

The workforce development mission of eSpace also will be accomplished through the innovative eSpace Straight to Space, or S2S program, by providing on-the-job training grants of $1,000 to $4,000 to high school graduates and community college students and placing them in existing entrepreneurial space companies in the Front Range.

Diane Dimeff, previously the associate dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley campus, will be responsible for its leadership and day-to-day operations. Dimeff, director of eSpace, brings a history of working with both academia and industry to conceive of and build entrepreneurial programs. Addressing the mission of eSpace, Dimeff said, “eSpace is an exceptional opportunity for collaboration among industry, government and education to create jobs, commercialize research and incubate new businesses.”

Oversight and stewardship will be provided by a board of directors and board of advisers comprised of nationally recognized leaders in aerospace entrepreneurship, aerospace education and high-technology businesses.

“Entrepreneurial space companies are a national resource to be nurtured and developed,” said Tibbitts. “The innovations they provide are making space exploration more affordable and accessible to humankind. In upcoming years, we expect that the methods we use to get to, utilize and explore space will be transformed from government-supported endeavors to private, entrepreneurial ventures. eSpace intends to be an important part of that transformation.”

For more information visit the eSpace Web site at www.espacecenter.org, SpaceDev Inc. at www.SpaceDev.com, the CU-Boulder aerospace engineering sciences department at www.colorado.edu/aerospace, Sierra Nevada Corp. at www.sncorp.com and the Metro Center WIRED initiative at www.metrodenver.org/wired.