DARPA's Phoenix Project To Recycle U.S. Satellites Using Satlets And The “Zero Propellant Maneuver”

Draper Laboratory is working with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop and demonstrate technologies to cooperatively harvest and re-use valuable components from retired, nonworking satellites in geosynchronous orbit and demonstrate the ability to create new space systems.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is funding the work, believes that the Phoenix concept may ultimately cut the cost and time of deploying new satellites to support U.S. warfighter communications needs worldwide.

DARPA aims to demonstrate Phoenix in space in 2015 by taking an antenna from a non-working communications spacecraft and reconfiguring it into a “new system.”

DARPA believes that many satellites that have been retired or have failed early and put into the graveyard orbit still have usable antennas, solar arrays and other components with significant residual lifetime and value.

The Phoenix program includes developing two components – a servicing satellite and a batch of “satlets” housed in a payload orbital delivery system (PODS) that can “ride along” on a commercial spacecraft 22,000 miles above the Earth to GEO, where most communications satellites are located.

The servicing spacecraft and PODS would rendezvous in space, where the servicer harvests an antenna from a non-functioning communications satellite by prior agreement with its owner, and attaches it to the satlets. The resulting aggregated spacecraft rises from the remains of retired assets to provide a new capability.

Draper brings experience from its work on NASA programs like the International Space Station (ISS) that can play a key role in enabling the satlets to fit into a tiny package that is inexpensive to launch while providing long term operations for the new satellite capability.

Credit: DARPA

The Laboratory plans to equip the satlets with attitude control software based on its “Zero Propellant Maneuver.” The software has been demonstrated in space with the International Space Station as well as NASA’s TRACE mission, and can enable a spacecraft to maintain a stable orientation without the use of thrusters. Draper’s approach not only provides a size reduction that can drive down launch cost, but can extend the spacecraft’s new orbital lifetime by removing one of the key reasons for obsolescence – prematurely running out of fuel.

Draper has worked with the U.S. government on previous programs that demonstrated the ability to rendezvous with a spacecraft in orbit, including the military’s Orbital Express mission. Draper also supported Orbital Sciences in its work with NASA on the Commercial Orbital Transportation Service (COTS), which is intended to deliver cargo to the ISS.

“Creating new space systems at greatly reduced cost requires moving away from traditional processes and subsystem development. Draper’s past experiences in space programs complement the Phoenix objectives and position us to help the U.S. achieve its goals.” said Brad Moran, Draper’s Phoenix program manager.

The Phoenix program envisions developing a new class of very small ‘satlets,’ similar to nano satellites, which could be sent to the GEO region more economically as a “ride along” on a commercial satellite launch, and then attached to the antenna of a non-functional cooperating satellite robotically, essentially creating a new space system. A payload orbital delivery system, or PODS, will also be designed to safely house the satlets for transport aboard a commercial satellite launch. A separate on-orbit ‘tender,’ or satellite servicing satellite is also expected to be built and launched into GEO. Once the tender arrives on orbit, the PODS would then be released from its ride-along host and link up with the tender to become part of the satellite servicing station’s ‘tool belt.’ The tender plans to be equipped with grasping mechanical arms for removing the satlets and components from the PODS using unique space tools to be developed in the program.

The traditional process of designing, developing, building and deploying space technologies is long and expensive. Through Phoenix DARPA seeks to hasten the insertion of emerging technologies into space system development at much lower cost.

Critical to the success of the Phoenix program is active participation from the international and non-traditional space communities involved in vital technical areas such as:

• Radiation tolerant micro-electronics and memory storage 
• Distributed “wireless” mobile platform solutions for ad-hoc connectivity and control Industrial electronic control systems 
• Terrestrial micro-miniature guidance and control measurement units 
• Industrial robotics end effectors and tool changeout mechanisms and techniques 
• Computer-assisted medical robotics micro-surgical tele-presence, tools and imaging 
• Remote underwater imaging/vision technologies used in the offshore oil and gas drilling industry 
• Terrestrial manufacturing of high volume micro-electronics and computer data storage 
• Terrestrial thermal management design technology of electronic devices and systems 
• Low-cost industrial manufacturing of high volume sheet metal and other structural materials 
• Additive manufacturing on various structural materials 

The first keystone mission of the Phoenix program in 2015 plans to demonstrate harvesting an existing, cooperative, retired satellite aperture, by physically separating it from the host non-working satellite using on-orbit grappling tools controlled remotely from earth. The aperture will then be reconfigured into a ‘new’ free-flying space system and operated independently to demonstrate the concept of space “re-use.”

Contacts and sources:

Kathleen Granchelli
Draper Laboratory
DARPA