IAC-15.A3.1.7.x29515 Dedicated Rideshare Launch Services - SmallSat Access Beyond LEO

摘要

Over the past decade, Small Satellites have demonstrated increased utility, as well as increased numbers launched per year. Where in the past smallsats were seen as technology test beds and a platform for university students, smallsats now have real commercial value for remote sensing in LEO. While a geosynchronous orbit has been primarily the domain of large, traditional communication satellites, a number of technology breakthroughs, mainly electric propulsion and miniaturized payload systems, are enabling the business case for smallsats outside of LEO. However, the necessary infrastructure and marketplace for routine access to a geosynchronous transfer orbit does not yet exist. If you have a 1000 kilogram, electric propulsion satellite, you must still buy an entire launch vehicle, with significant extra vehicle performance remaining. Terrestrially, we have numerous transportation options, from expensive overnight air freight to more inexpensively shipping cargo via ocean freight. The same is true for personal travel, flying first class, economy class, or opting for the slow, but cheap, bus option. Spaceflight is applying the same thought process for access to LEO, GTO, and beyond, through our standard rideshare and newly introduced Dedicated Rideshare launch services, first scheduled in Q3 2017 to a sun synchronous orbit and then onto a highly elliptical polar orbit, enabling launch services for [NAME redacted until Oct 7 2015] in the Google Lunar XPRIZE. This paper outlines the existing customer case, the launch brokerage and integration approach, as well as the expected impact that Spaceflight's Dedicated Rideshare Missions will have on enabling exploration beyond LEO.