DARPA Begins Work on Low-Earth Orbit Satellite ‘Translator’

DARPA has chosen 11 teams for Phase 1 of the Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node program (Space-BACN) project that aims to create optical intersatellite communications terminal to connect satellite networks.

Space-BACN aims to create a low-cost, reconfigurable optical communications terminal that adapts to most optical intersatellite link standards, translating between diverse satellite constellations. Space-BACN would create an “internet” of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, enabling seamless communication between military/government and commercial/civil satellite constellations that currently are unable to talk with each other.

The agency selected teams from academia and large and small commercial companies, including multiple performers awarded first-time contracts with the Department of Defense.

In the first technical area, the following performers aim to develop a flexible, low size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) optical aperture that couples into single-mode fiber: CACI, Inc.; MBRYONICS; and Mynaric.

The following teams selected in the second technical area aim to develop a reconfigurable optical modem that supports up to 100 Gbps on a single wavelength: II-VI Aerospace and Defense; Arizona State University; and Intel Federal, LLC.

The performer teams listed above will also participate in a collaborative working group to define the interface between their respective system components.

In a third technical area, the agency selected five teams to identify critical command and control elements required to support cross-constellation optical intersatellite link communications and develop the schema necessary to interface between Space-BACN and commercial partner constellations: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX); Telesat; SpaceLink; Viasat; and Kuiper Government Solutions (KGS) LLC, an Amazon subsidiary.

Phase 1 of Space- BACN spans 14 months and will conclude with a preliminary design review for the first two technical areas, as well as a fully defined interface between system components. The third technical area will develop the schema for cross-constellation command and control, and will conduct a connectivity demo in a simulated environment to test the schema for a baseline scenario.

At the completion of Phase 1, selected performers in the first two technical areas will participate in an 18-month Phase 2 to develop engineering design units of the optical terminal components, while performers in the third technical area will continue to evolve the schema to function in more challenging and dynamic scenarios.