Satellites are useful pieces of equipment, but they have shortcomings: they are not amenable to repair and refueling, and they cannot defend themselves.
However, researchers are addressing both issues. With respect to satellite security, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have launched a 7-year mission to develop the technology needed for autonomous satellite protection systems. The campaign, called STARCS (Science and Technology Advancing Resilience for Contested Space), will fund dozens of Laboratory Directed Research and Development projects that focus on three critical areas:
· threat-defended hardware, which protects satellite processors, circuits, and systems from attacks;
· cognitive analytics, or software algorithms that can rapidly and independently detect, adapt to, and defeat threats; and
· sensor protection that shields sensors from harm.
A report titled Challenges to Security in Space from the Defense Intelligence Agency outlines the challenges. For example, “Chinese and Russian military doctrines indicate that they view space as important to modern warfare and view counterspace capabilities as a means to reduce U.S. and alled military effectiveness,” the report states. In addition, “Iran and North Korea also pose a challenge to militaries using space-enabled services, as each has demonstrated jamming capabilities.”
The report concludes, “As the number of spacefaring nations grows and as some actors integrate space and counterspace capabilities into military operations, these trends will pose a challenge to U.S. space dominance and present new risks for assets on orbit.”
The Sandia mission looks to ameliorate these risks. “Sandia has a long and successful history in space systems engineering,” said Jeff Mercier, one of the mission’s senior managers, as quoted at Newswise. “We helped develop Vela in the 1960s and have continued to regularly deliver satellite payloads since then. We need to ensure our payloads survive against emerging threats in space.”
“Space is important to our everyday lives, and space is also important to our national security,” added Drew Woodbury, the manager for STARCS. “Historically, space has been benign, but now U.S. four-star generals are saying that they expect a space war within my lifetime. When I say space war, I mean satellites attacking satellites.”
Woodbury pointed out that a satellite could be susceptible to a missile launched to destroy it or to a laser shining on its optical sensors. Other threats include directed or kinetic energy, robotic mechanisms, chemical sprayers, high-powered microwaves, and RF jammers.
Sandia launched 12 STARCS-related Laboratory Directed Research and Development projects this month. About half of the projects launched this year include research partners from Sandia’s academic alliance schools, and the team is looking to partner with additional universities with relevant research focus areas.
“As the campaign continues, the ultimate results we are looking for is to develop more mature technology that can be transitioned to industry and the government,” Mercier said.
As for satellite repair and refueling, NASA’s Restore-L technology may prove to be helpful, as I recounted in “NASA looks to create AAA for satellites” back in 2016. In April of this year, Maxar Technologies announced that the spacecraft bus it is building for the Restore-L project had completed a Critical Design Review (CDR), with the spacecraft bus on track to ship to NASA in 2020 for integration with a robotic payload and a forecast launch in 2022.
