The U.S. military wants satellites from different manufacturers to be able to operate within a single orbital network. To achieve this, it has commissioned demonstration tests from several private companies at once. Each company must show that its spacecraft can exchange data through a common backbone. The work is expected to take less than a year.
Money and Timeline
The Space Systems Command announced the $60 million in contracts on August 13, as SpaceNews reports. The amount was divided equally among Amazon LEO for Government, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, and York Space Systems.
Each company’s share is divided into two tranches. The larger one reaches $10 million under a fixed-price agreement lasting up to nine months, while the smaller $2 million tranche is issued under a separate six-month agreement.
Foundation from SpaceX
The Space Data Network is envisioned as a mesh architecture in low Earth orbit capable of transferring large amounts of information between satellites and between space and the surface. Its foundation is being built by SpaceX.
The company received the contract for the backbone segment back in May, with its value reaching $2.29 billion. The project involves a large constellation of spacecraft equipped with optical inter-satellite links.
Together, all five new contracts amount to less than 3% of the value of that contract. In other words, this is more of a safeguard against dependence on a single supplier than a full-fledged alternative to the main backbone.
What Exactly Will Be Tested
Most of the funding will go toward prototypes and demonstrations of connections between systems from different manufacturers. The tests will include data transmission from the surface to orbit and directly between spacecraft in space.
Standardized interfaces will also be tested separately. Without a common connection format, every new contractor would have to develop its own solution for the same network.
Orbital Routers
A smaller portion of the funding concerns a concept called a space exchange point. Such nodes are intended to function like network switches directly in space.
Through them, commercial networks and government satellite systems could exchange data with the backbone while remaining separate from one another. The corresponding agreements are limited to six months.
