DARPA Hopes To Build Plug-In Satellites In Space

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http://breakingdefense.com/2014/03/darpa-hopes-to-build-plug-in-satellites-in-space/

DARPA Hopes To Build Plug-In Satellites In Space
By Colin Clark on March 11, 2014 at 1:35 PM

WASHINGTON: Imagine self-healing satellites built in space. One sensor breaks down and another sensor elsewhere on the satellite takes up the slack. And the satellites are launched in modular pieces, on a series of different rockets, then are assembled by a robot arm in orbit. Parts can be replaced. The satellite can be refueled to prolong its operational life. This isn’t yet the space dock servicing the USS Enterprise, but it may mark the first steps toward such a capability.

It’s the stuff of science fiction and, as often happens, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA) is the place experimenting with the new technologies and concepts of operations to make it real. Since the program, known as Phoenix, is expected to consume a tiny $40 million to $50 million this year (in its third year), don’t expect miracles any time soon.

Today, satellites have to be built with the knowledge that once they go into orbit they’re on their own. If something goes wrong or they just get old and die, there’s little that can be done beyond sending corrective signals to them from Earth and hoping they fix the problem. Phoenix would change that equation.

Part of the approach, Phoenix program manager David Barnhart says, relies on what he calls “satlets,” small, self-contained pieces of satellites that would be plugged together to create the larger birds. The original Phoenix concept, as its name implies, was to bring old satellites back to life by refueling them or sticking new sensors or other gear such as communications transponders on them.