SDA awarded Arkisys Team SBIR Phase 2 Effort to look at Constellation Augmentation
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. (November 13, 2024) – Arkisys™, a provider of on-orbit services on stable long
duration Port Module platforms to support in-space assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) applications, is excited to kickoff a small business innovation research (SBIR) Phase 2 effort on architectural and demonstrable validation to use on-orbit servicing to augment constellations for the Space Development
Agency (SDA). Under this award from SDA, Arkisys will explore the potential longer term value proposition of on orbit services via long duration platforms and last mile transport vehicle capabilities to
support on-demand constellation maintenance and augmentation as a commercially available service for
the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
“Our goal is to look at the larger picture of comparing maintenance and augmentation post launch vs incremental changes on the ground that may be applied to PWSA satellites in a constellation architecture” says Dave Barnhart founder and CEO at Arkisys. “Understanding the value proposition where constellation maintenance or upgrade to support rapid mission changes over time may be made in orbit, post launch is SDA’s challenge to us to consider.”
This dovetails and extends the current short-term study award Arkisys and its team was given for de-orbit augmentation evaluation and pricing options as commercial services. This effort will include actual prototype level demonstrations in Arkisys’ 1G testbed to validate fidelity required for payload to bus connectivity. This effort will leverage and recognize how the growing industrial base can support adding almost any capability to satellites on orbit, post launch. Invested in early on by the commercially-focused Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and SpaceWerx, Arkisys has made strong progress in showcasing use cases for a long duration space testbed that is by design able to grow into a larger structure itself on orbit.
“Combined with partner companies throughout the industry we intend to show the significant growth potential in economics, mission upgrade, and lower time to execution. Space will open up alternatives to single life single mission space systems” says Dave. “With our and other companies’ capabilities we believe the ability to optimize and integrate new capabilities to satellites on orbit may well shift the economic equation into sustainability as a viable ultimately higher growth approach to satellite systems. We are humbled to be selected for this SBIR Phase 2 award and look forward to pushing the boundaries on what is possible in support of SDA’s goals and mission.” says Barnhart.
Given both the U.S. and a large number of commercial providers are creating constellations with tens of thousands of planned satellites, this focused, extended study is a strong signal that a commercially viable industry focused on economic and achievable near-term technical ISAM functionality in orbit can provide a growth in value to large constellations.
Arkisys is just one of multiple companies globally developing capabilities to create a true orbital services ecosystem in space. Arkisys has partnered with, and continues to reach out to, like-minded entities such as Argo Space, iBOSS, Texas A&M University, Novawurks, GATE Space, Solestial, OrbitAid, Obruta, etc. to showcase and validate that the ability to shift assembly of a complex space platform from the ground to space is possible.
