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Mini satellites preview: what Germany can do better than Elon Musk
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What knowledge should the formation flight provide
Four dwarf satellites from the Würzburg Telematics Center were successfully sent into space aboard a Russian Soyuz launcher. At an altitude of 600 kilometers, they should now train independently for their mission.
The Würzburg developers have sent four small satellites into space with a Soyuz rocket. This is an important step in international competition, because the project succeeds in what was previously impossible. That should even make SpaceX boss Musk jealous.
reThe world premiere begins with the opportunity to fly. On Monday, four small shoebox-sized satellites were launched into space with a Russian Soyuz rocket. The main payload at the launch was three large communications satellites for the Russians. Furthermore, the mini satellites developed and built in Würzburg also flew into space.
For the first time, the NetSat project aims to make satellites fly in formation and steer themselves in the process. An automatic group dance in space.
After a successful rocket launch from the Plesezk space station, initial data indicated that the mission was going well. The satellites will be deployed at an altitude of 575 kilometers.
The satellites, each weighing four kilograms, were developed under the leadership of internationally renowned Professor Klaus Schilling at the Würzburg Center for Telematics (ZfT) and the company S4 (Smart Small Satellite Systems).
Germany is demonstrating in the international competition for smaller satellites with a special technological feature. Huge swarms of satellites are currently being planned in dozens of projects around the world.
Self-organizing satellite fleet
It is becoming clear that more and more small microsatellites are being launched to take over their tasks as a joint fleet. Researchers from Würzburg are considered experts in miniaturizing satellites and can test them too.
In space, satellites are not supposed to fly one-dimensional like in the past, like a pearl necklace, or two-dimensionally next to each other, but three-dimensionally like a world premiere.
The fleet is largely self-organizing, and satellites are not steadily steered from Earth’s control centers. Thanks to three-dimensional flight, three-dimensional images from space would also be possible in the future, for example to analyze electrical storms or ash clouds during a volcanic eruption.
The four satellites of the NetSat mission are said to rotate like an orbiting formation as they orbit Earth. The satellites also communicate with each other. Such a scenario had never been performed before.
Not even from the American company SpaceX owned by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has quickly become the world’s largest satellite operator with his Starlink project, which will supposedly offer Internet services around the world.
“Franconia in space, who would have thought?”
As Professor Schilling said in Würzburg, the four satellites should come within 20 meters of each other at the end of the test campaign. “There are excellent prospects in Earth observation and telecommunications,” said Schilling.
Cooperation between larger satellites and smaller fleets is also conceivable. The economic prospects for future multi-satellite systems, such as the Internet of Things or improved climate forecasts and better information for agriculture, are especially interesting.
Schilling spoke in favor of installing a highly automated satellite production also in Germany, “preferably in Bavaria”, so as not to be left behind in relation to the United States or China. It should be able to produce “about 1000 satellites in a year” in a highly automated way.
In Würzburg it has already been possible to manufacture and test mini satellites with robotic assistance. Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder paid tribute to the successes of the Würzburg researchers in a greeting video. “Franconia in space, who would have thought it,” said the CSU politician. Space technology is becoming increasingly important.
As stated in the presentation of the NetSat project, a future satellite construction factory in Germany would not be possible without the support of the government. Germany could develop a national and independent competence through a satellite factory and use its technical competence.
“It is important that we play in this new space sector,” said Schilling. He noted that considerable experience had already been accumulated in the construction of minisatellites in the vicinity of the University of Würzburg. The first German mini satellite “Uwe” flew into space as early as 2005 with an edge length of ten centimeters.
