DARPA August 10, 2022
DARPA has selected 11 teams, from academia and large and small commercial companies, for Phase 1 of the Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node program, known as Space-BACN. 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. It 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. 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 conduct a connectivity demo in a simulated environment to test the schema for a baseline scenario. Phase 2 involves developing engineering design units of the optical terminal components…read more.
Credit: DARPA