National Defence Industries Association

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Elsis PRO successfully completed the first phase of the project, developing a communication system between Nano satellites which is funded by the ESA (European Space Agency)

The new space age of low-cost nanosatellites is coming out of its early phase with 3.000 nanosatellites expected deployed during the next 6 years. So far, most nanosatellites have been launched as single sensors or in small constellation with spread out ground stations.
The near-future space industrialisation will set new requirements to (mega) constellation management, as satellites may not only communicate to the nearest ground station, but may communicate in between other satellites in constellation or intelligently determine a more efficient data route through data exchange between a build-for-purpose space to ground relay satellite.
To enable such operational model of hundreds or thousands of satellites requires establishment of a communication network between intersatellite and ground.
To date, significant research and advancements has been achieved within radio and laser communication between ground and space and intersatellite (how to communicate). The satellites can communicate – but there is yet no industry middleware platform for data exchange and management (what to communicate).
The Galaxy project addresses this issue and will develop the de facto industry recognised solution for data exchange and management platform for space (DEMPS).
This innovation will be based on best practice from the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Even though IoT technologies are designed for data exchange with distributed devices with different communication approaches, they are designed for terrestrial purposes. They will operate poorly in space environments characterized by low bandwidth, latency, network hopping, interruptions and fluctuating communication links that are common in space communication. Problems are further enhanced by resource-constrained network devices with multiple data types, satellite developers and operators
Elsis PRO will develop a space based IoT data exchange and management platform named Galaxy, up to and including a prototype of data management system with Quality of Service (QoS) functionality working between agents (nanosatellites) and data management node (ground station).