Agreement between international NewSpace pioneers will pilot a cutting-edge in-space debris tracking technology and service.
4th November 2021 – Digantara Research and Technologies (Digantara), a space situational awareness company, has signed a contract with Orbital Astronautics (OrbAstro), a satellite and in-orbit service provider, to fly its SCOT (Space–based space Climate and Object Tracker) payload onboard an ORB-6 satellite platform launching towards the end of 2022. The mission will focus on demonstration of a novel LiDAR-based technology developed by Digantara, and will serve as the pilot for their LEO constellation providing a space situational awareness service.
Anirudh Sharma, CEO of Digantara, stated:
“With the rapid growth of satellite applications and the influx of mega constellations, situational awareness of 1.0 – 10.0 cm objects, in addition to objects larger than 10 cm, is becoming increasingly important. With 96% of potentially hazardous objects still untracked, comprehensive situational awareness is required to operate assets in LEO effectively. Solving such intricate problems requires real-time insights. Digantara’s mission is to build a sustainable near-Earth environment and access to space by providing actionable insights through meaningful collaborations with industry stakeholders. Cooperation with companies such as OrbAstro play an important role in accelerating Digantara’s objectives.”
Dr Ash Dove-Jay, CEO of OrbAstro, said:
“Through its own satellite constellation, Digantara is working towards providing a service that constellation operators, space agencies, and regulators are screaming for. By far the most effective solution to a sustainable LEO environment will be comprehensive space traffic management. This will not be possible without companies like Digantara enriching datasets on traffic. Over the coming years, to enable the space traffic management aspect of our Guardian Network service, we are going to become reliant on partnerships with companies like Digantara.”
Beyond being a space-as-a-service provider geared towards nanosatellite and microsatellite constellations, OrbAstro is building an infrastructure to better service customer satellites, the Guardian Network. The Guardian Network provides low-latency access to customer satellites through an in-orbit data relay network, and it provides a high level of operations automation at the level of the satellite, mission, constellation, and space traffic management.
About Digantara
Digantara is a space situational awareness company building the world’s first in-situ orbital surveillance platform, SCOT. Digantara’s end to end platform, S-MAP (Space – Mission Assurance Platform) will change the way Mission design and operations are carried out in the industry today. Once deployed, Digantara’s satellite constellation will provide high fidelity data at 10x higher resolution than the current industry standards, effectively elevating space governance.
About OrbAstro
Orbital Astronautics Ltd is a United Kingdom and New Zealand based space technology company focused on providing “space as a service”, supporting companies looking to directly utilise satellites for their businesses. Orbital Astronautics is currently maturing a satellite batch production facility targeting constellation markets, and is building its own satellite constellation to provide low-latency access and autonomous operations services for customers satellites.
