SBIR-STTR Award

With increased focus on development of highly capable Nanosat satellites and missions, innovations in spacecraft system design and architecture that yield high performance, modular and multi-function systems will enhance Air Force mission capability and flexibility. SWAP constraints in NanoSats necessitate this system approach to result in significant increases in performance and mission capability within a highly responsive and lower cost NanoSat environment. An area of considerable development opportunity and need to enable Air Force NanoSat missions is to increase available continuous power significantly, to lower costs and to further leverage this capability to effectively de-orbit the spacecraft at end-of-life. MMA Design proposes to advance the state-of-the-art in Nanosat power systems by developing an Enhanced High Watts per Kilogram (E-HaWK™) Advanced Power and De-orbit Module (APDM) consisting of an innovative deployable two-wing solar array and de-orbit system combined with a bi-axis sun tracking gimbal assembly specifically designed for NanoSats. The E-HaWK™ APDM targets a 300% increase in specific power (W/kg), 233% increase in peak power, and 900% increase in orbital average power (OAP) over existing SOA. This high performance is achievable within the Nanosat system design envelope through the use of innovative solar panel packaging and gimbal technologies.

Benefit:
Benefits and impacts to the Air Force mission for NanoSats include: 1. Space Situational Awareness – Bi-axis sun tracking allows the S/C to maintain high continuous power while simultaneously freeing the mission instruments to fully support the target mission, thus improving data collection; 2. Mission ISR data and quality can increase with increases in power capabilities and performance; 3. Maximizing the utility of the available volume by combining the functions of solar power and de-orbiting into one robust deployable system; 4. Rapid development and maturation of innovative power technologies for NanoSats leads to low cost solutions that are adaptable and scalable to other Air Force applications; 5. Advancement of key deployable and steerable solar array technologies to overcome current spacecraft and mission limitations; 6. A modular and scalable system architecture that is multi-functional; 7. A low mass and low volume system to maximize the mass/volume available for instrument payloads; 8. De-orbit capability ensures reduction in future space debris and available orbital slots; and 9. The MMA team offers Air Force high innovative content for revolutionizing NanoSat technologies with high risk/reward payoffs. Air Force can leverage our small company performance advantages in the areas of technical, schedule, and cost. Future Air Force missions employing Earth orbiting Nanosat spacecraft as an observation platform and requiring high reliability, significantly lower mass and volume, higher mass specific power, and improved efficiency over the state of practice can leverage the significant performance enhancements of MMA’s proposed Nanosat E-HaWK APDM. Air Force nanosatellite missions are currently being designed for a wide spectrum of space missions including space weather and other experiments, testing advanced propulsion and communications technologies, and for rapidly developing and testing emerging technologies and economical commercial off-the-shelf components which may be useful in future space missions. The MMA team, the proposed E-HaWK and other MMA deployables technology innovations are well suited for the responsive Nanosat environment and the goals of future Air Force Nanosat missions. The NRO is currently pursuing advanced Nanosat capabilities and missions through its Colony II program. Additionally, SMC is developing NanoSats for the SENSE mission, an initial demonstration mission to support on-orbit space weather observation. These and other opportunities seek an order of magnitude higher power for N

Keywords:
A Tracked Solar Power System For Nanosats, Significantly Increases Spacecraft Continuous Power, Achieving 70 Watts Peak Power And 50 Watts Orbital Average Power, A Bi-Axis Mod

With increased focus on development of highly capable NanoSat spacecraft and missions, innovations in system design and architecture yielding high performance, modular and multi-function systems will enhance Air Force mission utility, capability and flexibility. An area of considerable development opportunity enabling Air Force NanoSat missions is to increase available continuous power significantly, to lower costs and to further leverage this capability to effectively de-orbit the spacecraft at end-of-life. MMA Design proposes to significantly advance the state-of-the-art in NanoSat power systems by completing development and delivering our Enhanced High Watts per Kilogram (E-HaWK) solar power system with a modular and scalable architecture. It consists of innovative deployable solar arrays combined with a sun tracking gimbal assembly that is initially optimized for a 3U but readily adaptable to a 6U Bus configuration. The significance to the Air Force of our innovative solution is that it allows the spacecraft to maintain high power while freeing the mission instruments to track an area of interest, thus improving mission utility, flexibility and capability. The E-HaWK innovations further demonstrate MMA’s NanoSat modular solar power architecture for providing a range of mission power options and leverages from our core solar power technologies.

Benefit:
1. Space Situational Awareness – two axis sun tracking allows the S/C to maintain high continuous power while simultaneously freeing the mission instruments to track an AOI, thus improving mission capability, flexibility and utility. 2. Mission ISR data and quality can increase with increases in power capabilities, power tracking and performance. 3. Maximizing the utility of the available volume by combining the functions of solar power and de-orbiting into one robust deployable system. 4. Rapid development and maturation of innovative spacecraft power and bus technologies leading to low cost solutions that are adaptable and scalable to other AFRL applications. 5. Advancement of key deployable and steerable solar array technologies to overcome current NanoSat spacecraft and mission limitations. 6. A highly modular and scalable system design. 7. A low mass/volume and high performance 3U bus system to maximize the mass/volume available for payloads. 8. De-orbit capability ensures reduction in future space debris and available orbital slots. 9. The MMA team offers Air Force high innovative content for revolutionizing NanoSat technologies with high risk/reward payoffs. Air Force can leverage our small company performance advantages in the areas of technical, schedule and cost.

Keywords:
Sun Tracked Solar Array, Gimbal, High Specific Performance Solar Power System, Nanosat, Disruptive Power Technologies, Modular And Scalable Architecture, High Packaging Effici ---------- In the Department of Defense (DoD), as well as across the spaceflight industry, there is a rapidly growing need for Nanosatellites (Nanosat) that can support higher performance missions.By design, these satellites utilize common components and architectures to reduce production costs.As more involved technologies and capabilities are built into nanosats, higher peak and continuous power is required to allow them to utilize these technologies.In order to capitalize on these capabilities for both tactical and scientific value, these missions will require increased power to be available from the same Nanosat platform. Missions are now rapidly growing to the 6U-12U size and power requirements continue to grow. MMA Design LLC is currently developing a steerable solar array for Nanosat spacecraft that will support this next class of Nanosatellites.This technology will allow Nanosat solar arrays to be continuously adjusted (pointed) to the sun and simultaneously produce the highest power output possible to support the mission.MMA Designs steerable solar array will enable the DoD to meet future NanoSat mission needs and will provide the capability to deliver significant increases in continuous spacecraft power within a compact low mass solar array package.