By Col. (ret.) Dean Bellamy, EVP, National Security Space
This month marks the anniversary of the 1986 release of the movie “Top Gun” and its popular sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick.” The latest film’s depiction of fighter jets diving and maneuvering on autopilot isn’t reality today, but that level of autonomy is coming, not only at 60,000 feet, but also in space.
As space increasingly becomes a warfighting domain, we’ll need even more autonomy on satellites than we have on aircraft today. An autopilot-type onboard autonomy that makes sense of where a satellite is and what’s around it, space domain awareness (SDA), will be critical.
Technology and Warfighting
I think often about the lessons of WWII, where breaking the Enigma code turned the tide for the Allies in Europe. Before that, German U-boats dominated submarine warfare, sinking many Allied ships. Similarly, in the Pacific, code breakers allowed the U.S. Navy to know in advance when Midway was going to be attacked, allowing them to prepare and ultimately win a battle considered the turning point in the Pacific theater.
Today we need similar game-changing capabilities to stay ahead of our adversaries. The key is finding new ways to achieve autonomous multi-domain information superiority. Prioritizing government science and technology funding in autonomy would allow us to achieve these capabilities and ensure both mission success and the safety of our soldiers, sailors, and airmen on the ground.
Stay Aware, Stay Alive
One area where such advancements will be crucial is SDA. Many Earth-imaging satellites today rely on sunlight reflected off Earth’s surface, making them ineffective at night and leading to a huge capabilities gap. In addition, most ground and space-based sensors can only track objects during certain periods of time, leaving gaps of knowledge. Clearly, we will need next-generation sensors in a hybrid architecture to provide a persistent understanding of the space domain.
For instance, imagine driving in a city with a camera on every city block. These cameras provide safety, security, and stability, ensuring that nobody’s driving at dangerous speeds, alerting the police to crimes in real-time, and helping enforce the rules of the road. In space, our cameras could deliver similar benefits. For example, optical equipment could help monitor where an anti-satellite weapon is and determine if it’s a threat that requires action.
Advances in SDA would also allow us to deliver actionable intelligence data to aircraft, bases, and carrier fleets. On the civilian space side, SDA protects satellites against threats, enabling the safety of valuable assets for our first responders that are deployed to fight fires, floods, and hurricanes.
Redwire Leading the Way
Redwire has amazing talent, bringing ideas and solutions that are both state of the art and state of industry. A great example of this kind of outside-the-box thinking is Redwire’s Digital Ecosystem for Mission and System Integration (DEMSI). DEMSI is a digital toolbox for space and mission system integration that allows our customers to do validation and modeling.
Another area of innovation is in-space refueling. While refueling an airplane is routine, only a handful of spacecraft have ever done it. As objects get closer in space, you have to recognize distances precisely so they don’t collide. Redwire is delivering high-agility spacecraft based on its Mako platform for the U.S. Space Force’s Tetra-5 and -6 missions. Tetra-5 and –6 will demonstrate cooperative and prepared inspection, docking, on-orbit refueling, proximity operations, and next-generation autonomy techniques that will help to enable future on-orbit servicing capabilities, spacecraft autonomy, and sustained space maneuver. These capabilities could potentially make space-based refueling as common as refueling airplanes is today.
Few space companies are consistently investing in independent research and development to develop leap-ahead technologies. What makes Redwire unique is how our mission-focused culture puts resources, including people, toward creating these game-changing products.
Learn more about how SDA capabilities are key to protecting critical space assets by accessing Redwire’s SDA Mission Focus Report.
