SAN FRANCISCO – Quantum Space plans to launch Scout-1, the space infrastructure and services company’s first satellite, no sooner than March 2024 on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare flight.
From sun synchronous low-Earth orbit, the Scout-1 satellite will test a sensor Quantum Space plans to send to deep space as a part of QuantumNet, a constellation to supply customers with communications, navigation and space situational awareness services in geostationary and cislunar space.
Sue Hall, Quantum Space vice chairman programs, called the Scout-1 Sentry mission a “stepping stone” toward QuantumNet.
The Scout-1 sensor “will track resident space objects,” Hall told , and display communications between Quantum Space’s ground and space infrastructures.
Throughout the two-year Sentry mission, Quantum Space plans to refine its image-processing algorithms. Initially running on the bottom, the algorithms will likely be moved to space-based edge processors on future satellites.
Over the subsequent two years, Scout-1 Sentry “will operate as a continuing node as we refine and develop numerous that architecture that we would like to push out into cislunar space,” Hall said.
Kerry Wisnosky, Quantum Space president and CEO called Scout-1 “a vital milestone and first step toward delivering a versatile and modern data and communications relay network.”
Cislunar Traffic
Business and government orbiters and landers are scheduled to travel to cislunar space in the subsequent few years.
“Partnerships between the U.S. Government and industrial innovators have opened the door to recent ideas and breakthroughs in constructing a cislunar economy, and we’re excited to pave the best way in constructing the underlying infrastructure needed to support deep space commerce, national security and scientific exploration,” Wisnosky said in a press release.
Phil Bracken, Quantum Space chief strategy officer, added that cislunar space “goes to turn into an enormous recent use case for space-faring firms and countries. But we’d like to practice before we get there.”
An additional advantage of the Sentry mission is showing Quantum Space investors that the Rockville, Maryland-based startup can hit a key milestone in its marketing strategy, Bracken said.
In late 2022, Quantum Space raised $15 million in a Series A investment round.
Scouts and Rangers
Reprise Space Systems LLC, often known as SEOPS, is providing mission integration services and its U.S.-built deployer, Equalizer, for Scout-1.
Scout-1 is designed to work with future Scout satellites and Ranger, a Quantum Space spacecraft designed to supply operational capabilities in deep space including hosting and deploying government and industrial payloads. As well as, Ranger will likely be equipped with data and communications sensors plus on-orbit processors to run artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.
“Ultimately our goal is to open GEO and cislunar space to their full potential and help organizations leverage recent innovations,” Hall said in a press release. “This primary demonstration mission will prove invaluable as we gain operational insights for our upcoming missions.”