September 16, 2021 | International, Aerospace
December 4, 2020 | International, Aerospace
This company wants to launch satellites into space via drone
WASHINGTON — Could drones hold the answer to putting satellites on orbit faster?
Space logistics company Aevum is betting on it with its new Ravn X drone, which it built in the hopes of launching rockets into orbit every three hours.
“Aevum is completely reimagining access to space,” said Jay Skylus, Aevum's founder and chief executive, said in a statement unveiling the new launch solution Dec. 3. “U.S. leadership has identified the critical need for extremely fast access to low Earth orbit. We're faster than anybody.
“Through our autonomous technologies, Aevum will shorten the lead time of launches from years to months, and when our customers demand it, minutes,” he added.
Founded in 2016, the company has been developing its product in stealth mode for years. On Dec. 3, they officially unveiled the new Ravn X autonomous launch solution ― an 80-foot long drone designed to launch small payloads into low Earth orbit.
The company has yet to conduct its first test flight but is working toward airworthiness certification. Leaders hope to launch a payload for the military before the end of 2021.
“We have a small launch vehicle that's more or less designed from scratch to be reusable and for responsive space access,” Skylus told C4ISRNET in an interview. “We do this by operating this sort of three stage launch vehicle stack. The first stage is an unmanned aircraft that is completely autonomous. The second and third stages are rocket systems.”
Following take off, the drone rises to between 30,000 and 60,000 feet, where the rocket separates and ignites, launching the payload into orbit. Ravn X can take off and land horizontally on any airstrip at least one mile long.
“The entire system is designed for a turnaround time and response time of about 180 minutes,” Skylus explained.
The idea of launching satellites into space from the air isn't a new concept. For example, Northrop Grumman's Pegasus rocket ― designed to be launched into orbit from a carrier aircraft ― has been used for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Air Force and NASA missions since the 1990s, with the most recent mission taking place in October 2019. A more recent entrant into the air-launch-to-orbit arena is Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket. The company's first test flight, which failed to reach orbit, was conducted in May 2020.
Aevum thinks of itself as taking the concept one step further by adding autonomy to the launch process.
“This entire process is more or less fully autonomous, and this allows us to basically reduce the cost of labor that's required by about 90 percent,” said Skylus.
Aevum's approach also gets at one of the most frustrating issues with launch: weather.
In 2018, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced the DARPA Launch Challenge, where small launch companies were asked to show that they could put a payload into space within just 30 days. While about 50 companies applied, by 2019 their were only three companies remaining in the competition. By 2020, there was just one: Astra Space. The company came close to achieving its goal, ultimately failing after inclement weather forced them to scrub multiple launch attempts.
Ravn X is largely impervious to those issues.
“Because of the architecture, we're really not dependent on weather and those types of things. We expect to be available more than 96 percent of the year,” said Skylus.
The company is already drawing attention from the Department of Defense. Ravn X's first mission will be the ASLON-45 mission for the U.S. Space Force, a $5 million contract. With that mission, the focus is on showing how the company can get a payload into orbit in 24 hours or less, said Skylus. That launch is expected to be complete before the end of 2021.
In addition, the company has received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research award, a classified contract, and is one of eight company's to receive a $986 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for Orbital Services Program-4.
“I'm excited to see the bold innovation and responsiveness in development today by our small launch industry partners to support emerging war fighter needs” said Lt. Col. Ryan Rose, Chief of the Space and Missile Systems Center's Small Launch and Targets Division, in a statement coordinated with Aevum's announcement. “The U.S. Space Force is proactively partnering with industry to support U.S. space superiority objectives. Having a robust U.S. industry providing responsive launch capability is key to ensuring the U.S. Space Force can respond to future threats.”
The Pentagon has been pushing industry for responsive launch solutions, ensuring that they can place payloads into orbit with little notice. Aevum's focus on software and automation gives them an edge in meeting those elusive responsive launch requirements, Skylus said.
“The responsive space launch type of problem has been a problem for several decades now, and the government has been seeking a solution to this. While others, our peers, are trying to tackle this from a technology/engineering perspective, Aevum is really tackling the problem from a system level perspective,” said Skylus.
That's meant taking proven hardware solutions and applying autonomous software solutions to the ground processes and mission assurance elements.
“If you look at our financials and things like that, we really do look more like a software company as opposed to a launch company,” said Skylus. “Which is great, because that means we're profitable right out of the gate.”
For Aevum, the focus is on being that dependable, responsive launch service, and that may come at a premium for prospective customers, including the Pentagon.
“We're not looking to be the lowest cost provider. That was never something that we claimed to be,” said Skylus. “Our focus has been: How do we make sure that we can go when our customers need to go?
“Our niche market is going to be composed of customers like the Department of Defense who can't afford to wait a week to gather intel ... Or a customer like a commercial constellation customer who if they're down for over a week, they're going to lose more in revenue than they would be willing to pay for a launch,” he continued. “Those are the customers that we're really targeting.”
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February 13, 2019 | International, C4ISR, Other Defence
New Strategy Outlines Path Forward for Artificial Intelligence
The Department of Defense on Feb. 12 released the summary of its strategy on artificial intelligence. The strategy, Harnessing AI to Advance Our Security and Prosperity, outlines how DOD will leverage AI into the future. Key tenets of the strategy are accelerating the delivery and adoption of AI; establishing a common foundation for scaling AI's impact across DOD and enabling decentralized development and experimentation; evolving partnerships with industry, academia, allies and partners; cultivating a leading AI workforce; and leading in military AI ethics and safety. The department's strategic approach to AI emphasizes its rapid, iterative, and responsible delivery and then the use of lessons learned to create repeatable and scalable processes and systems that will improve functions and missions across the department. AI is poised to change the character of the future battlefield and the pace of threats faced in today's security environment. The United States, together with its allies and partners, must adopt AI to maintain its strategic position and prevail on future battlefields. AI will impact every corner of the department, spanning operations, training, sustainment, force protection, recruiting, healthcare and others. The focal point of DOD AI is the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, established last June under DOD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy and led by Lt. Gen. John "Jack" Shanahan, to provide a common vision, mission and focus to drive department-wide AI capability delivery. DOD's AI strategy supports the National Defense Strategy and is part of DOD's overall efforts to modernize information technology to support the warfighter, defend against cyber attacks and leverage emerging technologies. More information is available on defense.gov: Artificial Intelligence Strategy Fact Sheet https://dod.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1755388/new-strategy-outlines-path-forward-for-artificial-intelligence/source/GovDelivery/
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September 2, 2020 | International, Land, Other Defence
Army Wants Industry Input For Reliable Exoskeleton (Not Iron Man, Yet!)
By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR. SOCOM couldn't build a bulletproof Iron Man. But Army experiments with more modest lower-body exoskeletons have shown real-world potential to help overburdened foot troops. WASHINGTON: Army Futures Command is drafting a formal requirement for a military exoskeleton and will seek feedback from manufacturers at a November industry day. The Army's top priority, officials told me: rapidly prototyping a system that helps the wearer “move faster, travel further, and carry heavier loads” – without breaking down in the heat of battle. “Reliability is a huge issue that needs to be resolved,” said Ted Maciuba, deputy director of robotic requirements for Futures Command. Now, don't expect a full-body bulletproof suit that can fly and access huge databases out of science fiction. “We are not going after the Starship Troopers/Iron Man system right off the bat,” said Rich Cofer, a former soldier who's now the Army's lead “capabilities developer” on the exoskeleton project. “We're not going to jump right in and expect Tony Stark... Expectation management is key.” (That's a stark contrast to Special Operations Command's highly publicized TALOS program, which explicitly compared itself to Iron Man but produced nothing of the kind). So instead of Iron Man, think Iron Leg. In a “soldier touchpoint” last December at Fort Drum, NY, Army soldiers from more than two dozen Military Occupational Specialties — ranging from infantry to supply — tried out various types of “lower-body exoskeletons,” including the Lockheed Martin ONYX that our own Paul McLeary tries out in this video. In essence, these are motorized knee braces and other wearable reinforcements for the legs that lighten the load on overburdened soldiers as they march for hours with heavy packs, manhandle artillery shells and such. The goal isn't to give the wearer superpowers, but to reduce fatigue and risk of injury. During the Fort Drum trials, “there were significant increases in the effectiveness of soldiers,” Maciuba told me. “The soldiers were able to do more with the exoskeleton than they could without.” That said, “we learned [that] there needs to be enough reliability engineered into our systems so that there is a very high probability they will not fail in use,” Maciuba continued. “It's one thing to be wearing a boot whose sole flips off. You can always take some 100-mile-an-hour tape and tape that back on your foot. It's another thing to be wearing an exoskeleton” that requires specialized training and tools to fix. So reliability will be a high priority when the Army speaks to potential vendors in mid-November. By that point, Maciuba & co. expect to have a draft Abbreviated Capabilities Development Document for industry to review and offer comment on. (Army Futures Command officially gave them the go-ahead to write the ACDD on Aug. 14th; the exoskeleton project falls under the command's Soldier Lethality team, with input from PEO-Soldier acquisition officials, Natick Soldier Systems Center researchers, and capability managers for infantry, armored, and Stryker units). While unclassified, the document will be considered sensitive and only released to qualified contractors. While the ACDD is formally considered a requirements document, Maciuba told me, it's not going to set rigid technical specs as would a traditional Army requirement. The technology is advancing way too fast to get that detailed at this early stage. Instead, he said, it will outline “desirable characteristics” but leave industry plenty of leeway to innovate on specific ways to achieve them – and the Army is open to revising those desires based on what industry says is actually achievable. “We want industry to grade our work,” Maciuba said. The industry day – which will be held online unless there's some miraculous breakthrough with COVID-19 – will include both a general session open to all contractors and one-on-one meetings with specific contractors so they can discuss their technology without competitors listening. Afterwards, Maciuba, Cofer, & co. will compile the feedback from all the companies, revise the ACDD, and send it to Army leaders for approval. The final Abbreviated Capabilities Development Document should be out by the end of 2021, Cofer estimated. The next step? Use a streamlined acquisition process known as Section 804, intended to field a working prototype within five years – that is, Maciuba cautioned, if the Army can find the funding. https://breakingdefense.com/2020/09/army-wants-industry-input-for-reliable-exoskeleton-not-iron-man-yet/