Page 89 - Australian Defence Magazine Nov 2020

N OVEMBER 2020 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE BUSINESS VIEW FROM CANBERRA 89
LEFT: Space is becoming increasingly congested at both the LEO and GEO orbits.
So, JP9102 will be running in paral- lel with the UK. The main difference is that the UK already possesses a sover- eign satcom capability.
A Request for Tender may be re- leased before end of year.
So far so good. A new communica- tions satellite or satellites won’t be out there until later this decade and we may need up to four for full coverage of the mainland and Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.
But there’s more. Defence is also looking to enhanced space-based sur- veillance, initially through improved access to commercial providers. Project DEF 799 Phase 2 envisages possible ac- quisition of a sovereign capability.
So in a decade or so, various De- fence satellites will be whizzing around out there.
As vital as all that will be, Defence sees another capability as founda- tional. That’s knowing what the heck else is out there – what’s called space domain awareness (SDA), a term now preferred over space situational aware- ness (SSA). See P44 for more on this.
“SDA underpins all other space missions, providing the ability to identify, characterise and understand factors that affect the space domain,” a Defence spokesperson said.
Everyone knows there’s a lot of stuff in orbit, ranging from more than 2,000 operational satellites, defunct satellites, discarded rocket components such as boosters,
debris from satellites destroyed in various mishaps and tests of anti-satellite weapons, dropped tools and globs of slag from rocket motors.
Some of this will de-orbit of its own accord. Some orbital 101: Because of atmospheric drag, most object in low earth orbit (LEO) will eventually re-enter and burn up. Without or- bital adjustment, nominal life of a satellite at 400 kilometres is a year, while at 500 kilometres that goes out to 10 years and at 900 kilometres it’s 1,000 years.
At geostationary orbit – precisely 35,786 kilometres – ob- jects will remain theoretically forever. Which is why defunct satellites should use their last onboard fuel to shift to what’s called the graveyard orbit about 200 kilometres higher to make room for new satellites.
Geo is where the really expensive
stuff lives, surveillance, communica-
tions, weather and spy satellites and
it’s where Australia’s new communi-
cations satellites will go. The life of
a satellite in geo is around 15 years,
dictated by onboard fuel, used for BUSINESS, WHERE station keeping and manoeuvring.
Though fuel may be depleted, a
satellite may be otherwise fully func-
tional, which is why much though
has gone into developing capabilities for in-orbit refuelling.
In February, Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Ve- hicle (MEV-1) docked with Intelsat 901 (launched in 2001) to provide contracted station keeping services for five years at a reported cost of US$13 million per year. That’s not cheap but still cheaper than a new satellite.
Launching stuff is regarded as the sexy side of the space business and Australia is certainly headed towards a domes- tic launch capability.
That probably won’t be in time to launch Australia’s new Defence communications satellites. But come it will as there’s plenty of ambition. Gold Coast-based Gilmour Space Technologies plans its first launch to LEO in 2022 and, down the track, to send people into space. ■
“LAUNCHING STUFF IS REGARDED AS THE SEXY SIDE OF THE SPACE
AUSTRALIA IS HEADED.”
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