I was at a conference last year and there was a speaker there that had worked at NASA for years and was currently at MIT. She talked at length about some of the earth and space scientific exploration that NASA has enabled over the years. Despite massive cost overruns, years long schedule delays and other mishaps, NASA has ultimately come through with groundbreaking science
At the end of her presentation I asked what data gaps existed today in space and earth sensing. She mentioned real time methane tracking (presumably from space) and battery-less ocean sensing.
Methane tracking I could understand but battery-less ocean sensing was harder to get a handle on.
US Navy and other oceanographic organizations have deployed numerous sensing devices over the years. Some of which were like a flotilla, which traveled across the Gulf and Atlantic ocean to gather data.
But these were battery supported, solar powered, and limited to ~1 year of service after which they were scuttled to the bottom of the ocean.
I guess the thought being that battery-less ocean sensing platform could provide more of an ongoing, permanent sensor platform, one that could be deployed and potentially be in service for years at a time, with little to no maintenance.
The pivot
So as a stepping stone to Silverton Space cubesat operations, I’m thinking that going after a permanent-like ocean sensing platform would be a valuable first step. And it’s quite possible that anything we do in LEO with Silverton Space platforms could complement any ocean going sensor activity.
One reason to pivot to ocean sensing is that it’s much much cheaper to launch a flotilla of ocean going sensing buoys via a boat off a coast than it is to launch a handful of cubesats into LEO (@~$70K each).
Cubesats fail at a high rate
Moreover, the litany of small satellite failures is long, highly varied and chronic. Essentially anything that could go wrong, often does, at least for the first dozen or so satellites you deploy.
NASA says that of the small satellites launched between 2000 and 2016 over 40% failed in some way and over 24% were total mission failures. (see: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190002705/downloads/20190002705.pdf)
Cubesats with limited functionality or that fail in orbit or to launch, become just more trash orbiting in LEO. And the only way to diagnose what went wrong is elaborate, extensive and transmitted/recieved telemetry.
So another reason to start with ocean going sensors is that there’s a distinct possibility of retrieving a malfunctioning ocean going sensor buoy after deployment. And with sensor buoy in hand, diagnosing what went wrong should be a snap. This doesn’t eliminate the need for elaborate, extensive and transmitted/recieved telemetry but you are no longer entirely dependent on it.
And even if at end of life they can’t be salvaged/refurbished or scuttled. Worst case is that our ocean sensing buoys would end up being part of some ocean/gulf garbage patch. And hopefully will get picked up and disposed of as part of oceanic garbage collection.
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So for the foreseeable future, Silverton Space, will focus on ocean going sensor buoys. It’s unlikely that our first iterations will be completely battery-less but at some point down the line, we hope to produce a version that can be on station for years at a time and provide valuable ocean sensing data to the scientific community.
The main question left, is what sorts of ongoing, ocean sensor information might be most valuable to supply to the world’s scientific community?
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