2023年4月6日

独家:前哨赢得1.7美元国防部合同渡轮平台前哨宣布它已经成功测试了其自主滑翔伞在九月返回系统。图片:前哨的太空站赢得了1.7美元的国防部合同资助渡轮卫星的开发和测试,可以将载荷安全地带回地球大气中没有燃烧。直接向第二阶段轨道主要从SpaceWERX SBIR的合同是与美国国防部启动的第一个合同,保罗•Tomko前哨,业务发展总监告诉负载。的想法:前哨基地成立于2020年的国家和公司在大计划推出数十万颗卫星送入megaconstellations,但没有人给任何想把他们的环境影响:成千上万的卫星每年在大气层中烧毁。基于卫星星座的计划规模,“如果你没有任何途径[他们]返回地球,你真的只是每年燃烧30000卫星大气中,“Tomko说。科技:渡船平台将启动与客户有效载荷在任何rideshare火箭。的时候回到地球,渡船将部署一个充气式防热罩保护卫星重返大气层。自主滑翔伞平台将安全指导地球卫星的方法,确保平稳和精确降落,Tomko说。前哨,测试其充气式防热罩,这是与美国国家航空航天局开发的,并测试其滑翔伞系统高空气球坠落试验。下一步将是全面展示地球使命返回一个有效载荷,预计在2024年底或2025年初,Tomko说。 The benefits: Getting payloads back quickly has lots of potential use cases, Tomko said. For biological experiments in space, having the spacecraft touch down on land means researchers can get to their data much faster than if it splashed down in the ocean. It will also allow startups to send their tech to space for a short time and rapidly iterate based on their findings after getting the hardware back. “We would love to be a one-month satellite…so you can see what changed, what worked, and what didn’t,” he said. What’s next: At first, Outpost will launch with a customer payload on board and bring that same payload back to Earth. But eventually, Tomko said the company hopes to be able to retrieve defunct satellites or other space junk and return them to Earth after deploying a satellite. Get daily insights on the most important news impacting the space economy. Join thousands of space leaders today. Email