Advantages of satellite platforms over single satellites:
- Reduced production costs.
- Shorter pre-launch preparation time.
- Increased service life.
The technology increases the availability of commercial satellite services dramatically. A customer who needs to launch a payload into space can simply buy space on a satellite bus, eliminating the need to develop and launch a separate satellite.
Dragonfly Aerospace currently offers two types of satellite platforms with different payload placement options and continues to expand its range.
What is a satellite bus?
A satellite bus is a spacecraft bus that maintains all the service systems of serial satellites connected to it. These can be both geostationary satellites and spacecrafts positioned in low earth orbits. Typically, a satellite bus platform includes:
- Structures and trusses to accommodate payload;
- Solar panels or batteries to provide power supply;
- Optical sensors, angular velocity meters, and flywheels to control movement, orientation, and stabilization;
- On-board computer and antennas for systems control and telemetry service data transmission;
- Thermoregulation system to remove excess heat from service systems and the payload module;
- Hall effect engine to adjust payload latitude and longitude;
- Apogee engine for deployment from GTO to GSO (for heavy geostationary satellites).
- Depending on the number and type of satellites served, platforms are categorized into:
- Lightweight (weighing up to 2 tons with a payload power up to 6 kW)
- Medium (up to 5 tons and 14 kW)
- Heavyweight (5 tons and 15 kW or more).
At the same time, one of the most important parameters of a satellite bus is the ratio of payload mass to the total spacecraft mass. The lighter the platform, the more payload it can deliver to a given orbit, which, in turn, ensures efficient mission completion.
What is satellite bus used for?
Satellite platforms are an optimal solution for:
- Reducing satellite design costs due to serial production by sharing the production costs among all satellites in the series.
- Increasing payload reliability through repeated payload and systems testing.
- Reducing satellite production time by two to three times and securing a manufacturer's warranty for the production period.
- Increasing satellite service life in orbit.
At the same time, the satellite bus has practically no restrictions on the payload type. It is equally effective for ensuring the functionality of communication satellites, Earth Observation, geolocation, meteorological, etc., regardless of the placement orbit.
Dragonfly Aerospace offers lightweight satellite bus platforms for Earth Observation using proprietary DG optics of the following types:
- Cubesat imagers – Gecko, Mantis, Chameleon, Caiman.
- SmallSat high-res imagers – DragonEYE, Raptor.
Our cameras provide precise spatial resolution Earth-imaging and mapping with a coverage of 11-80 km and an image accuracy of 0.7 to 39 m.
Why choose Dragonfly satellite platforms?
Many years of experience in the development and satellite systems operation allow us to vouch for:
- Unprecedented quality of the satellite and all its components.
- Reliable and uninterrupted operation on Dragonfly Bus platforms for 5 and 8 years.
- Fully automated AOCS.
- High data transfer speed, up to 1Gbps.
- Fast recording and 4Tb data storage.
- Individual approach to each client, as well as flexible pricing.
Buy a place for your payload on Dragonfly satellite platforms and start benefiting from it now!
