LINUSS

Show how small satellites can be used to upgrade constellations or provide life-extension services like refueling.

A pair of 12U cubesats have completed environmental testing and will launch as early as this fall to perform a demonstration in geosynchronous Earth orbit called LINUSS, short for Lockheed Martin In-space Upgrade Satellite System, the company said. The intent is to show how small satellites can be used to upgrade constellations or provide life-extension services like refueling. The mission will seek to “validate essential maneuvering capabilities for Lockheed Martin’s future space upgrade and servicing missions, as well as to showcase miniaturized space domain awareness capabilities."

New generation of space technology launching this year that will allow satellites to change their missions in orbit. Technology demonstration mission, validating SmartSat capabilities and 3D-printed components. SmartSat-enabled satellites can reset themselves faster, diagnose issues with greater precision and back each other up when needed, significantly enhancing resiliency. Satellites can also better detect and defend against cyber threats autonomously, and on-board cyber defenses can be updated regularly to address new threats.

SmartSat uses a hypervisor to securely containerize virtual machines. It's a technology that lets a single computer operate multiple servers virtually to maximize memory, on-board processing and network bandwidth. It takes advantage of multi-core processing, something new to space. That lets satellites process more data in orbit so they can beam down just the most critical and relevant information—saving bandwidth costs and reducing the burden on ground station analysts, and ultimately opening the door for tomorrow's data centers in space.

A pair of Lockheed Martin cubesats that flew to geostationary Earth orbit in November performed maneuvers in close proximity and demonstrated other technologies for in-orbit servicing operations, company officials said April 17.

• The Linuss experiment — short for Lockheed Martin’s In-space Upgrade Satellite System — went to orbit on the USSF-44 national security mission launched by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. 
• The two cubesats, each the size of a toaster, were deployed 300 kilometers above geostationary orbit from a ring-shaped secondary payload that carried multiple smallsats.
• They were released three days apart about 750 kilometers away from each other and a month later they were navigating within 400 meters of each other, Karla Brown, Linuss program manager, told reporters during a news conference at Lockheed Martin’s technology center at the Catalyst Campus.
• One of the cubesats performed the role of servicing vehicle and the other was the resident space object. She said she expects the satellites to come even closer, to about 200 meters as the experiment continues.
• The more significant goal that was accomplished was proving AI algorithms that would be needed to perform a space servicing mission, Brown said.
• The experiment also helped to demonstrate a new ground system that uses S-band communications to command and control the company’s LM 50 small line of satellites that it’s building with bus manufacturer Terran Orbital.
• Other goals of the experiment were to test space domain awareness cameras and support risk reduction of a docking port called Augmentation System Port Interface (ASPIN) that Lockheed Martin is trying to commercialize. Docking devices are used by servicing vehicles to refuel another satellite or attach a new sensor,

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