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Lockheed Martin puts on the market its GPS augmentation systems

Lockheed Martin has developed a satellite-based augmentation system that leverages both GPS and Europe’s Galileo

Lockheed Martin’s vice president of navigation systems, Andre Trotter said that the availability of a new GPS navigation signal for civilian users is creating market opportunities in so-called satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) that countries around the world are developing or upgrading to support transportation and other industries.

Six GPS 3 satellites that broadcast the L1C signal have been launched since 2018, the most recent one last week. GPS 3 is a modernized version of the U.S. military’s Global Positioning System satellites that broadcast positioning, navigation and timing signals. Compared to earlier generations, the GPS 3 satellites provide military users extra protection from jamming attacks but one of its most significant features is the L1C signal for civilian users that is interoperable with Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites.

Lockheed Martin has built 10 GPS 3 satellites under a 2008 contract from the U.S. Air Force, and will produce at least 10 more GPS 3F, a more advanced version.

“The company developed what it calls a 2nd generation SBAS that takes advantage of both GPS L1/L5 and Galileo E1/E5 signals to provide more accurate navigation and positioning, and reduce dependence on any one system,” Trotter told SpaceNews.

Lockheed Martin in September won a $1.18 billion 19-year contract to develop and operate the Southern Positioning Augmentation Network (SouthPAN) for the governments of Australia and New Zealand. The system is expected to be operational by 2028. “There is a significant amount of testing that must go on in order for the signals to be certified for different types of use, whether that be safety-of-life or commercial aircraft operations,” Trotter said.

Lockheed Martin’s SBAS broadcasts on two frequencies to augment signals from GPS and Galileo. 

“We are currently broadcasting the dual-frequency multiple constellation SBAS signal as part of SouthPAN,” Trotter said. “As additional GPS 3 and GPS 3F satellites are launched, service will improve even further.”

Winning the SouthPAN contract “could lead to more opportunities, as we have the ability to expand this enabling technology globally,” he said. “We are having discussions with other potential international customers. We also expect that more benefits will be realized as we bring in users and learn about new applications of the technology.” 

The SouthPAN system, for example, will improve accuracy from the current 5 to 10 meters, to about 10 centimeters, he said. More precise navigation and positioning data, Trotter said, is in high demand for commercial aviation, precision agriculture, maritime tracking, and the operation of drones and unmanned vehicles.

The U.S. SBAS is known as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). Europe’s is called EGNOS, or European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service. Several countries have implemented SBAS systems, including Japan and India, and more are in development. 

In the SouthPAN system, an SBAS payload is hosted on an Inmarsat geostationary Earth orbit communications satellite, which rebroadcasts the augmentation messages to user receivers. Lockheed Martin operates a tracking, telemetry and control ground station in Uralla, New South Wales. Spain-based GMV will develop SouthPAN’s data processing and control centers.

Lockheed Martin buys 10 satellite buses for military constellation

Lockheed Martin is set to buy buses from Terran Orbital for the Space Development Agency’s Transport Layer.

An announcement coming from Terran Orbital, is that it has completed delivery of 10 satellite buses ordered by Lockheed Martin for the Space Development Agency’s mesh network in low Earth orbit.

The first satellite bus was delivered in May. 

Lockheed Martin won a $187.5 million contract from the Space Development Agency (SDA) in August 2020, to produce 10 communications satellites for the Transport Layer Tranche 0. 

The Tranche 0 constellation will provide secure high-bandwidth, low-latency data links for military users.

Terran Orbital, based in Boca Raton, Florida, in October announced Lockheed Martin made a $100 million investment in the company that will be used to expand Terran Orbital’s satellite manufacturing facilities in Irvine, California.

Lockheed Martin also selected Terran Orbital as its satellite bus supplier for the Transport Layer Tranche 1, a much larger constellation of satellites made by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and York Space.

Lockheed Martin’s Tranche 0 satellites are projected to launch in June.

The expansion of manufacturing capacity in Irvine is intended to help meet a 2024 deadline to deliver 42 buses for SDA’s Tranche 1 under a $700 million contract. 

Terran Orbital CEO Marc Bell said the delivery of Tranche 0 satellites coincides with the company’s “shift from lower quantity, mission-unique satellites to robust production.”

This fall Terran Orbital announced it would abandon plans to build a constellation of 96 synthetic aperture radar satellites, called PredaSAR, in order to focus on the production of satellites for U.S. defense and national security customers. The company also formed a new business unit that will produce electro-optical imaging satellites.

Lockheed Martin releases satellite interface for on-orbit docking

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin on April 4 released the technical specifications of a docking adapter that could be used by manufacturers to make satellites interoperable and easier to update on orbit with new technology.

The technical data for the Mission Augmentation Port (MAP) can be used by designers to develop their own docking adapters, said Lockheed Martin.

The company used the MAP standard to design its own docking device, called Augmentation System Port Interface (ASPIN).

“With this technology, we’re able to upgrade operational spacecraft at the speed of technology,” said Paul Pelley, senior director of advanced programs at Lockheed Martin Space.

“Just like USB was designed to standardize computer connections, these documents are designed to standardize how spacecraft connect to each other on orbit,” he said.

On-orbit satellite servicing usually is associated with refueling. That is just one aspect of life extension, Pelley said. There is also a need to keep satellites technologically up to date, especially large geosynchronous spacecraft that stay in service for decades. A standard docking port interface could facilitate the insertion of new processors, data storage devices or sensors, and some satellite components could be replaced with new hardware.

“What Lockheed Martin is envisioning goes beyond ‘filling up the tank’ to extend mission life,” he said.

Eric Brown, senior director of military space mission strategy at Lockheed Martin, said the company has tested the ASPIN adapter in simulations and plans to fly it to space to get it qualified. “We have multiple partners, both commercial and government, that are interested in taking that next step,” said Brown

He said Lockheed Martin decided to develop the docking interface standard and release it to fill a need in the industry.

Many satellites that are in operation today have 20 or 30-year old technology and there is no means to update them in orbit, he said. One answer to that problem is to go to cheaper, smaller satellites that are more disposable and launched more frequently. But that solution doesn’t work for everybody, Brown said.

Some missions require large satellites that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, “and we still have to solve that technology refresh, these satellites are not disposable,” he said.

The vision that led to the MAP standard is that it could help create an aftermarket space industry that doesn’t exist today because satellites are not serviceable like airplanes, he said. In aerospace and defense, the aftermarket had created huge opportunities for a whole ecosystem of companies.

“Space has suffered from not really having an actionable aftermarket. And so by introducing the idea of satellite augmentation and enhancements we can also bring in the maintenance, repair and overhaul type of ecosystem that the air domain has enjoyed for years and years, and has introduced a lot of companies into aerospace and defense.” A space aftermarket “could be beneficial for Lockheed Martin but also beneficial for a variety of new companies that maybe aren’t in a position to build the next generation of GPS but may be able to go and fly sensors that can augment a GPS vehicle.”

Lockheed Martin Accelerates Transition to Software-Defined Space

Lockheed Martin's nanosatellite bus, the LM 50, will host the first SmartSat-enabled missions set for delivery this year. Photo: Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin’s nanosatellite bus, the LM 50, will host the first SmartSat-enabled missions set for delivery this year.

Aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin will integrate its new software-defined satellite architecture, SmartSat, on 10 of its nanosatellite missions this year, starting with Linus and Pony Express. The new software-defined capability is designed to allow satellites to change their missions in orbit, letting users “add capability and assign new missions with a software push, just like adding an app on a smartphone”.

The Linus project will deliver two 12U CubeSats based on the Lockheed Martin LM 50 nanosatellite bus design that will test and validate SmartSat capabilities as well as 3D-printed spacecraft components.

The Pony Express mission aims to send several 6U satellites destined for a Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The group of small satellites will test Radio Frequency (RF)-enabled swarming formations and space-to-space networking. Pony Express 1, designed over the course of nine months, is a pathfinder for a software-defined payload that will test cloud computing infrastructure. The company has yet to announce a set launch date scheduled for the programs.

SmartSat uses a high-power, radiation-hardened computer developed by the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Center for Space, High-performance, and Resilient Computing (SHREC), which is co-funded by Lockheed Martin. The technology takes advantage of multi-core processing and uses a hypervisor to “containerize” virtual machines — allowing a single computer to operate multiple servers virtually, maximizing memory. The aim of the design is to enable satellites to process more data in-orbit and prioritize which data gets beamed down back to Earth.

Lockheed Martin Space Executive Vice President (VP) Rick Ambrose said that his company was self-funding the LM 50 missions to demonstrate a number of plug-and-play capabilities across its entire fleet, ranging from its LM 50 nanosatellite bus to its flagship LM 2100. “And the same technology not only plugs into ground stations, improving space-ground integration, but it will also one day connect directly with planes, ships, and ground vehicles, connecting front-line users to the power of space like never before,” said Ambrose.

He added that Lockheed designed SmartSat with cybersecurity in mind, as satellites equipped with the new capability could potentially reset themselves faster and diagnose security issues with greater precision. “[SmartSat] satellites can also better detect and defend against cyber threats autonomously, and on-board cyber defenses can be updated regularly to address new threats.”

In May, Ambrose will speak on a software-defined panel at SATELLITE 2019, titled “Software-Defined Satellites for a Software-Defined Industry.” The panel, which will discuss initiatives and technologies that allow operators to code for a platform and to design and run virtual machines on a satellite, will also feature Lockheed Martin’s largest aerospace competitors — Airbus, Northrop Grumman, and Thales Alenia Space.

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