STARFISH SPACE, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF203-CSO2
STARFISH SPACE, INC. — SBIR Phase I award from Department of Defense.
- Amount
- $49,996
- Agency
- Department of Defense · Air Force
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase I
- Topic
- AF203-CSO2
- Solicitation
- X20.3
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- WA
- Period
- 2021-04-15 → 2021-07-14
Description
Starfish Space is developing autonomous Rendezvous and Proximity Operation (RPO) software to enable a new set of in-space vehicles and missions. The Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) software is capable of docking using exclusively low-thrust electric propulsion. Removing the reliance on chemical propulsion enables small space tugs with 8x more orbital maneuvering capability. The software capitalizes on Starfish Space co-founder Dr. Trevor Bennett's novel extensions to linear relative orbit equations (LROEs). The LROE format is combined with modern computing techniques to reliably and efficiently run on-board RPO vehicles. The guidance software is combined with sensor-fusing navigation filters and vehicle control algorithms to maneuver as desired in proximity to the target asset. The software stack is running in a physics-based simulation, and is ready for testing in simulated scenarios of interest.