On Cubesats Tech

AEROSPACE  NEWS  and an IOT Space Race

CubeSat Operators Launch an IoT Space Race New tech and lower costs make it possible to monitor devices straight from.    By Lucas Laursen

A rocket carrying CubeSats launched into Earth orbit two years ago, on 22 March 2021. Two of those CubeSats represented competing approaches to bringing the Internet of Things (IoT) to space. One, operated by Lacuna Space, uses a protocol called LoRaWAN, a long-range, low-power protocol owned by Semtech. The other, owned by Sateliot, uses the narrowband IoT protocol, following in the footsteps of OQ Technology, which launched a similar IoT satellite demonstration in 2019. And separately, in late 2022, the cellular industry standard-setter 3GPP incorporated satellite-based 5G into standard cellular service with its release 17.

In other words, there is now an IoT space race.

In addition to Lacuna and Sateliot, OQ Technology is also nipping at the heels of satellite telecom incumbents such as Iridium, Orbcomm, and Inmarsat for a share of the growing satellite-IoT subscriber market. OQ Technology has three satellites in low Earth orbit and plans to launch seven more this year, says OQ Technology’s chief innovation officer, Prasanna Nagarajan. OQ has paying customers in the oil and gas, agriculture, and transport logistics industries.

Sateliot, based in Barcelona, has the satellite it launched in 2021 in orbit and plans to launch four more this year, says Sateliot’s business development manager, Paula Caudet. The company is inviting early adopters to sample its service for free this year while it builds more coverage. “Certain use cases are fine with flybys every few hours, such as agricultural sensors,” Caudet says.

OQ Technology claims it will launch enough satellites to offer at least hourly coverage by 2024 and near-real-time coverage later that year. Sateliot is also aiming for better-than-hourly coverage sometime in 2024 and near-real-time coverage in 2025.

AEROSPACE  NEWS

CubeSat Operators Launch an IoT Space Race New tech and lower costs make it possible to monitor devices straight from orbit  ... 

A rocket carrying CubeSats launched into Earth orbit two years ago, on 22 March 2021. Two of those CubeSats represented competing approaches to bringing the Internet of Things (IoT) to space. One, operated by Lacuna Space, uses a protocol called LoRaWAN, a long-range, low-power protocol owned by Semtech. The other, owned by Sateliot, uses the narrowband IoT protocol, following in the footsteps of OQ Technology, which launched a similar IoT satellite demonstration in 2019. And separately, in late 2022, the cellular industry standard-setter 3GPP incorporated satellite-based 5G into standard cellular service with its release 17.      In other words, there is now an IoT space race.

In addition to Lacuna and Sateliot, OQ Technology is also nipping at the heels of satellite telecom incumbents such as Iridium, Orbcomm, and Inmarsat for a share of the growing satellite-IoT subscriber market. OQ Technology has three satellites in low Earth orbit and plans to launch seven more this year, says OQ Technology’s chief innovation officer, Prasanna Nagarajan. OQ has paying customers in the oil and gas, agriculture, and transport logistics industries.

Sateliot, based in Barcelona, has the satellite it launched in 2021 in orbit and plans to launch four more this year, says Sateliot’s business development manager, Paula Caudet. The company is inviting early adopters to sample its service for free this year while it builds more coverage. “Certain use cases are fine with flybys every few hours, such as agricultural sensors,” Caudet says.

OQ Technology claims it will launch enough satellites to offer at least hourly coverage by 2024 and near-real-time coverage later that year. Sateliot is also aiming for better-than-hourly coverage sometime in 2024 and near-real-time coverage in 2025. .... ' 

Robot Swarming Satellites

Recall our interest in swarming cooperating solutions here.

Robot Satellite Swarms Increase Communication Possibilities,  By ZDNet, February 11, 2021 in ACM

Carnegie Mellon University researchers prepare CubeSats for space. 

A National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission now underway is an experiment to maximize the effectiveness of CubeSats.  A U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mission currently underway aims to maximize the effectiveness of CubeSats—tiny, cost-effective satellites—by showing how they could track and communicate with each other.

The V-R3x mission will test three CubeSats and the underlying technologies that could pave the way for autonomous swarming satellites.  Said Carnegie Mellon University's Zac Manchester, "This mission is a precursor to more advanced swarming capabilities and autonomous formation flying."

Swarms of satellites, potentially numbering in the thousands and working cooperatively, could be used for communications, imaging, and forecasting tasks.  Manchester added, "The satellites will wake up and do their thing autonomously. We mainly need to make sure that we get their data downloaded." ... '

Connecting Cows and More to the Web

 Powerful direction for much more connections yet.   Implications for the use of data and what is forecast. 

Tiny Satellites Will Connect Cows, Cars, Shipping Containers to the Internet

The Wall Street Journal, Christopher Mims, January 9, 2021

Scientists are tapping tiny satellites developed by startups for research, using a new form of universal, all-the-time connectivity for terrestrial people, animals, and assets. These "cubesat" networks are the product of smaller, less costly, more capable satellite technology; plummeting launch costs thanks to companies like SpaceX; active national space programs; new launch technologies like three-dimensionally-printed engines, and low-power wireless communication standards. The Arribada Initiative co-develops satellite tracking and connectivity systems for researchers, which link to ground stations using Long Range Wide Area Networks. Similar projects include Dutch startup Smart Parks' network for connecting rhinos and elephants for wildlife refuge monitoring. These organizations are using radio spectrum to send and receive smaller amounts of data using less power. ... '

Hacking Cubesat Satellites

In FastCompany,  I had mentioned the worry about them polluting space.  Here a further issue when you put so many targets up there.  I assume the threat is being carefully considered,but consider too that new hacks are constantly emerging.  and software will be updated to defend it.  Depends on the seriousness of the results of the hack. How many Cubesat Satellites are to many?

What happens when all the tiny satellites we’re shooting into space get hacked?
Hackers could shut them down—or turn them into weapons.   .... " 

Last month, SpaceX became the operator of the world’s largest active satellite constellation. As of the end of January, the company had 242 satellites orbiting the planet, with plans to launch 42,000 over the next decade. This is part of its ambitious project to provide internet access across the globe. The race to put satellites in space is on, with Amazon, U.K.-based OneWeb, and other companies chomping at the bit to place thousands of satellites in orbit in the coming months.  ... " 

Use of Cube Satellites

Recent mention of the successful use of Cube Satellites made me think of yet broader applications, and others are thinking this way.  Back to the swarms of small and relatively cheap robots  to perform tasks as a group.   Could such small devices be very cheaply launched in groups?  See:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat   And the recent use of Cube Sats for the recent  Mars Lander.

Tiny satellites could be “guide stars” for huge next-generation telescopes
Researchers design CubeSats with lasers to provide steady reference light for telescopes investigating distant planets.    By Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office 

There are more than 3,900 confirmed planets beyond our solar system. Most of them have been detected because of their “transits” — instances when a planet crosses its star, momentarily blocking its light. These dips in starlight can tell astronomers a bit about a planet’s size and its distance from its star.

But knowing more about the planet, including whether it harbors oxygen, water, and other signs of life, requires far more powerful tools. Ideally, these would be much bigger telescopes in space, with light-gathering mirrors as wide as those of the largest ground observatories. NASA engineers are now developing designs for such next-generation space telescopes, including “segmented” telescopes with multiple small mirrors that could be assembled or unfurled to form one very large telescope once launched into space. ... "