Orbital Astronautics @ Nanosats Database

Company name	Orbital Astronautics (Orb Astro, OrbAstro)
Products Services	CubeSat Bus/Platform Communications - S/X/Ku/Ka/E EPS (Electrical Power System) OBC (On-Board Computer) Battery Orbital Data Relay
Constellations	Orbital Data Relay 3D Imaging 24-hour access to satellites through an optical data relay inter-link and RF ground link. Semi-autonomous satellite and constellation management and space traffic management for OrbAstro platforms. Status: Prototype development, Prototype(s) launched Constellation page at NewSpace Index
Nation	UK
Founded	2018
Funding	Yes
Photos
Photo source	[1] [2]
Oneliner	OrbAstro (Orbital Astronautics Ltd) is a space technology company focused on compressing the upfront cost and lead-time to get from business idea to revenue generation, for companies utilising satellites.
Description	OBC contains an Ultrascale+ based OBC (4GB RAM, 256GB high-speed storage), full ADCS, reaction wheel controls, magnetorquer controls, star-trackers, camera interfaces, full SDR S-/X-band (up to 150Mbps), GPS, optical data link control & processing, and Kintex FPGA for heavy data-processing and AI applications. The baseline system provides a total processing power exceeding 2 TFLOPs. Fault tolerance (SEU and SEL protection) implemented on both hardware and software. Most of the systems are based on TMR for fault-tolerant logic. EDAC is implemented on all memory units. We have developed high-gain X-band and Ka-band reflectarray antennas for use on the OrbAstro ORB-6 class satellites (~10kg) and larger. These antennas mirror the effectiveness of dish antennas in a lighter, flatter design. They also offer wider bandwidth and greater efficiency than patch antenna arrays. Coupled to our Ultrascale+ based SDRs, these RF systems are compelling. They will be operational in orbit from October onwards. The example shown is our 29.3dBi X-band variant associated with our ORB-50 class satellites (~100kg).
Notes	Flock Management System - Enabling nanosatellites to operate in large flocks. All satellite platforms procured through us will benefit from a low-latency optical data relay network and a high level of autonomous management at the satellite, mission, constellation, and even at the local space traffic level. AIT for our onboard computer subsystem involves measurement of ~17,000 parameters over a 60-hour period, mostly in vacuum, generating ~93GB of data. This data is analysed in our 800teraflop datacentre by our AI server against various pass/fail criteria. Even incoming inspection of component placement on assembled PCBs involves automated neural network based image analysis. Dove-Jay described the envisioned constellation as “a semiactive, multi-static SAR.” “It’s effectively one microsat with a cluster of typically a dozen nanosats around it. The microsat transmits and the nanosats receive,” Dove-Jay said. “Because of the different olocations of nanosats from the transmitter, you can effectively create a three-dimensional image of what you’re looking at. The more satellites you’ve got, the [more] power you’ve got, the higher resolution you can get to. And we think within the next four to five years, it’s perfectly viable for us to hit 10-centimeter resolution in Ka-band.” AstroForge: An update on Mission 1 and Mission 2: Same name, new vehicle, new standard for space exploration. 2024-07-30.
Socials
Status	Active in nanosatellites

Subcontractor for launched nanosats	Guardian 1 (Aistech, ORB-6, Guardian1) Guardian - Alpha (Pushan-Alpha) Brokkr-1 (ORBASTRO-AF-1) ORB-12 Strider OrbAstro-PC1 (ORB-6 Digantara) OrbAstro-TC1 (TR1, Xplore, OrbAstro ORB-6) OrbAstro TR2 (OrbAstro-TR2)
Own nanosats launched	Guardian 1 (Aistech, ORB-6, Guardian1) Guardian - Alpha (Pushan-Alpha) ORB-12 Strider OrbAstro-PC1 (ORB-6 Digantara) OrbAstro TR2 (OrbAstro-TR2)

Last modified: 2024-10-01

Orbital Astronautics (Orb Astro, OrbAstro)