ATK [ATK] has developed an expanded product line of small, agile satellite buses in response to customer demands for small satellites and fast deployment.
The now available ATK A-series product line consists of four basic configurations: A100, A200, A500 and A700 with elevated platforms of A150, A250 and A550 providing more payload weight capability and available power, Jim Armor, ATK vice president of strategy and business development, space systems division, said yesterday in a phone interview.
The A100 is the smallest satellite hub, capable of lasting one to five years while carrying a payload weighing up to 15 kilograms, ATK said in a statement. The A700 is the most heavy-duty of the product line, capable of lasting five to 15 years while carrying a payload weighing up to 1,700 kg. ATK said the A100 was used in NASA’s Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission.
Armor said although the A-series satellite hubs are not currently being used commercially, ATK is in discussions with a number of commercial parties interested in the A-series for missions.
Armor said customers have approached ATK about using small satellites to enter space, but believe they need something a little different than simply a small satellite.
“As we’ve talked with different potential customers, they’ve said ‘I’m really interested in a small one,’ but as you talk to them for a while, they really want a little bigger (satellite), or a little different (one), or (one with) a little bit more power, those kind of features,” Armor said. “So that’s why we have a variety of choices.”
The A-series satellites buses are compatible with most launch vehicles. Armor said he’d be “hard pressed” to find one the A-series buses are not compatible with.
Despite the growing demand for smaller satellites, Armor said there are objectives that simply require a larger satellite.
“If a scientist wants a really big telescope, you have to have a bigger bus to carry it,” Armor said. “If he wants it to live in a particularly harsh environment, say out at one of the (Lagrangian) points by the moon where there is a lot of shadow, (where) it needs extra batteries and power, you would have to put extra solar panels on it and bigger batteries, both which are heavier and more complex.”
Armor said in addition to budget constraints driving demand for smaller, and more affordable, satellites, technology has increased “by leaps and bounds” over the years where companies can put more capability in smaller packages more affordably.
ATK has been successful building small satellites quickly and efficiently over the years. Armor said ATK built the Operationally Responsive Space-1 (ORS-1) bus, from start to delivery, in 17 months. Armor said the usual time frame for a satellite of that magnitude, up until then, was three to seven years. ORS-1 successfully launched in the summer of 2011 and was declared to achieve initial/final operational capability in January (Defense Daily, Feb. 6).