SPACE 2.0
Follow the news and it’s apparent that the space market is going through a fundamental transformation.
THE FUTURE OF SPACE
Follow the news and it’s apparent that the space market is going through a fundamental transformation. Companies such as SpaceX, OneWeb, Amazon Kuiper, Lynk Global, Telesat, Astra, AST & Science, and many more are launching “constellations” of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that could put over 45,000 satellites into orbit during the next decade.
That’s more than five times the number of objects sent to space in the past 60 years.
In addition, lower launch costs and massive investments are enabling an exciting list of other new Space 2.0 missions that are dramatically expanding the space power market, including lunar exploration and mining, electric orbit raising, and space power generation. All of these new missions share one thing in common - they ALL require large amounts of power, orders of magnitude more than ever before!
Download our white paper, "Space-based Solar Power" to learn how our innovative solutions are powering Space 2.0.
Unfortunately, existing solar solutions don’t come close to meeting this new need. Traditional GaAs (gallium arsenide)-based solutions are extremely expensive and heavily supply constrained. Emerging silicon-based alternatives are unproven, unqualified, and incapable of scaling to the volumes required in the new space era.
DragonSCALES is the solar power
solution for the Space 2.0 market.
DragonSCALES™ has rapidly become THE solar power solution for the Space 2.0 market. The technology is flight-proven, rigorously qualified for space, and production-ready for high volumes. Additionally, DragonSCALES offers market-leading benefits for space such as incredibly low cost, high packing factors, radiation recovery, damage resilience, low weight and stowage volumes, mechanical flexibility and ease of system integration. DragonSCALES enables next-generation solar wing designs that extend the reliability and cost advantages to the spacecraft level. Finally, DragonSCALES can be completely customized to meet virtually any mission requirement. Talk to us today to find out how we can help meet your unique mission needs.
QUICK FACTS
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READY FOR FLIGHTFlight-proven, rigorously tested and qualified for space, and is high-volume production-ready
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VALUE SOLUTIONIncredibly low cost, high packing factors, radiation recovery, and damage resilience
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FLEXIBLE AND RELIABLELow weight and stowage volumes, mechanical flexibility, ease of system integration
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VERSATILECustomizable to meet virtually any mission requirements
QUICK FACTS
-
READY FOR FLIGHTFlight-proven, rigorously tested and qualified for space, and is high-volume production-ready
-
VALUE SOLUTIONIncredibly low cost, high packing factors, radiation recovery, and damage resilience
-
FLEXIBLE AND RELIABLELow weight and stowage volumes, mechanical flexibility, ease of system integration
-
VERSATILECustomizable to meet virtually any mission requirements
LEO Constellations
Massive low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are being developed that consist of thousands (or even tens of thousands) of satellites to provide high-speed, low-latency connectivity with 100% global coverage. Lower launch costs and satellite manufacturing costs have made the economics of such constellations feasible; however, the cost and availability of solar solutions designed for the harsh environment of space have been a historical barrier… until now.
Enter DragonSCALES. DragonSCALES technology has been specifically qualified for these mega-constellations at a significantly lower cost point. They can be produced at extremely high volume with very little lead time and offer several important performance enhancements. The flexible, lightweight design and inherently integrated wiring dramatically reduce handling and system integration costs. The meshed configuration with both parallel and series connections isolates faults to small local areas and eliminates single-point failures. Additionally, DragonSCALES has been designed from the ground up for space survivability, providing radiation protection and even recovery on orbit. DragonSCALES solutions are currently in production for a large LEO constellation and are backed by in-orbit performance validation data.
Orbit Raising
Electric propulsion (EP) is the preferred solution for orbit raising and other maneuvers after placement of satellites in their initial orbit after launch. Electric propulsion systems are more resilient and cost-effective than conventional chemical propulsion systems, and are becoming a critical enabler for missions such as deep space, space tugs, spacecraft as a service, etc. These propulsion systems require high voltage, cost-effective, tightly stowed, large-area deployable solar arrays and DragonSCALES is the perfect solution. DragonSCALES can also be tightly integrated with EP designs to reduce system-level design complexity and cost. DragonSCALES has already been selected for three electric propulsion programs and many more are on the way.
Landed Systems
Landed missions (lunar, Mars, asteroids) all require large amounts of dependable power to enable the wide range of possible operational scenarios, for example, in-situ resource utilization with surface mining. DragonSCALES delivers by offering low-cost, ultra-high-volume (10s to 100+MW/year) scalable solutions that enable a wide range of novel deployment approaches. The resilience and flexibility of DragonSCALES is unparalleled, ensuring mission survival in harsh landed environments. Together with Honeybee Robotics/Blue Origin, DragonSCALES has already been selected for the first phase of a NASA contract to provide a deployable landed lunar power solution.
Space Power Generation
Space power generation/power beaming systems offer great promise for the future. With large solar array power generation farms and laser and RF power beaming systems, they can efficiently provide power to other space assets including tugs, orbiters, and landed systems and eventually even to remote earth needs - anytime, anywhere. They have been considered for many decades, but the costs for these systems have made them infeasible – until now. With rapidly diminishing launch costs, many new configurations for space power generation are becoming feasible. However, to make them a reality, they also need low-cost, high-capacity solar arrays. DragonSCALES is positioned to be a leading choice in this market given it can be tightly integrated into large-area, low-mass deployment systems and can be manufactured at ultra-high volume and low-cost. DragonSCALES has already been selected for an end-to-end demonstration of UAV-based power beaming.