Beyond Mission Launched by D-Orbit
Beyond Mission Launched by D-Orbit
Part of the Recent SpaceX Falcon 9 Rideshare Mission from California
The 13th D-Orbit commercial mission, named Beyond, was launched aboard a Space X Falcon 9 Rocket on December 1 from Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Following launch, D-Orbit's ION Satellite Carrier was deployed into an approximately 560-km (≈ 350 mile) Sun Synchronous Orbit.
"We are now truly looking forward to 2024, a year that will mark the acquisition of several new milestones." Dr. Renato Panesi, D-Orbit
"This mission, with its diverse composition, perfectly showcases the flexibility of our ION Satellite Carrier. This has been a remarkably intense year, filled with challenges and as many satisfactions," said Renato Panesi, PhD, Co-founder, and Chief Commercial Officer of D-Orbit. "We are now truly looking forward to 2024, a year that will mark the acquisition of several new milestones, which we are eager to share with the industry at large."
ION Satellite Carrier can individually place satellites into specific orbital slots. Additionally, ION can host a variety of third-party payloads, including innovative technologies from startups, research experiments from academic institutions, and test instruments from established enterprises. D-Orbit's mission control team is now conducting the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP), setting the stage for the upcoming operational phase.
Collaborating with new and recurring passengers
During the mission, ION hosted several satellites, third-party satellite deployers, and third-party payloads:
ALISIO-1, a 6U CubeSat by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and IACTEC Space, is the first Canary Islands satellite for Earth Observation. Its main instrument is a DRAGO- 2 (Demonstrator for Remote Analysis of Ground Observations) camera, developed by the IACTEC-Space team, which was tested on a demonstration mission at the beginning of this year, during D-Orbit’s Dashing Through the Stars mission. With a resolution of 50 m per pixel and a swath of 32 km for an orbit of 500 km, DRAGO-2 is capable of obtaining high-quality multispectral images in the short-wave infrared. The ALISIO-1 satellite will also include an optical laser communications module that will allow it to send its images to any optical station on Earth at higher speed than radio communication. ALISIO-1 aims at becoming a key factor in planning the prevention and response to natural catastrophes. This mission has been supported by Deimos space, D-Orbit’s local partner in Spain.
NANO FF A and NANO FF B, two 2U CubeSats by TU Berlin, are part of a project spearheaded with funding from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The primary mission objective is the controlled formation flight of both satellites in a helix orbit, a pioneering feat for TU Berlin, as it will be the first-time satellites of such compact size from the university perform a formation flight in orbit. This features extensive, deployable solar panels, redundant GNSS receivers, three miniaturized star trackers, and four optical cameras with 39 m ground pixel resolution, and over 160 km swath width and marks a significant milestone for TU Berlin.
LOGSATS, a 3U CubeSat by Patriot Infovention, launched to demonstrate the first Thai space- based Internet-of-Things (IoT) communications system and aviation monitoring system of Thailand. While the IoT communications system aims at implementing the smart city model in the country, using information and communication technology to enhance and optimize the use the city’s resources, the aviation monitoring system will support the control of both manned and unmanned air traffic in Thailand.
PONO 1, a 2U CubeSat by Privateer, is a compact edge computing, storage, machine learning, and data transmission system built to be available to satellite operators as a hosted payload. Consisting of a high-speed SDR comms package, flight computer, and high-performance NVIDIA Orin-based GPU cluster, it will offer powerful on-orbit compute capabilities, radiation and thermal mitigation, and telemetry tracking. It is designed for upgraded precision in asset tracking and prediction, with retroreflectors attached to the hardware's exterior providing ultra-high accuracy orbit determination. PONO 1’s integration will enable operators to perform AI tasking, image processing, and collision risk assessment and avoidance, while generating additional revenue through their data streams' integration into Privateer's developer marketplace.
Z01 SuperTorquer, by Zenno Astronautics, will demonstrate the effective operation of the world’s first high-temperature superconducting electromagnets in space. Built on Zenno’s proprietary superconducting magnet technology, the Z01 enables fully autonomous and fuel-free satellite positioning and is designed to control the attitude of a spacecraft by aligning it to the Earth’s magnetic field, this is a world-first.
RECS, a hosted payload by D-Orbit and the Space Propulsion Laboratory (SPLab) of the Politecnico di Milano, that aims at better understanding the behavior of nitrous oxide (N2O), a propellant already used in D-Orbit’s propulsion system, and its performance during refueling. This is the final PhD project of Simone La Luna, now Head of Propulsion and Thermal Engineering at D-Orbit, which focuses on in-orbit refueling and green propellants; the payload comprises two tanks (one full and one empty) with a valve designed to facilitate the transfer of N2O from the full tank to the empty one, aiming to simulate the process of in-orbit refueling between two satellites. Pressure, temperature and fluid flow will be measured by the payloads’ sensors during this entire process.
MI:1, a mission by TRL11 that will test in orbit a prototype of the company's Space Aware Edge Computer.
AlbaPod 6P, two 6P PocketQube satellite deployers by Alba Orbital Ltd: AlbaPod 6P serves as a deployer for 6P PocketQube satellites. PocketQubes, which are typically cube-shaped with 5 cm sides and a maximum mass of 250 grams, leverage commercial off-the-shelf components for electronics. AlbaPod 6P aims to provide a reliable deployment platform for these diminutive satellites, enhancing the scope of what can be achieved with small-scale space assets. The deployer will host a variety of PocketQubes, each with its own unique research objectives.
As this new mission progresses, D-Orbit continues to push the boundaries of innovation in space logistics and orbital transportation, working to pave the way for a future of possibilities and enhanced accessibility to space.