Small Satellites, Hosted Payloads, Dual Use, and Strategic Space Services

Abstract

The concept of dual use of and hosted payloads on commercial satellites for strategic or defense-related service requirements developed relatively early in space age. The Intelsat II satellite was deployed for the prime purpose of meeting NASA tracking, telemetry, and command needs associated with the Project Gemini mission in the late 1960s. The Marisat program in the 1970s, as funded by the US Navy, was perhaps the first instance of a hosted payload where a satellite deployed both commercial and defense related payloads at the same time. The design and deployment of small commercial satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) by Iridium, Globalstar, and Orbcomm were strongly supported by military programs that saw the opportunity to use small satellite constellations to meet strategic communications needs of remotely deployed personnel. Indeed there have been ongoing instances where commercial satellites, small, medium, and large, as well as hosted payloads, have been employed in a dual use mode to meet defense-related needs and strategic governmental purposes. This has been true in past decades and seems likely to continue for the future.

This chapter reviews some of the history associated with the use of small satellites and hosted-payload systems to meet strategic needs both via dedicated and dual use systems. These needs have included: (i) tactical, strategic, and routine telecommunications and networking services; (ii) support for tracking, telemetry, and command; (iii) remote sensing and surveillance; (iv) weather monitoring and real-time updates on both Earth and space weather conditions; (v) monitoring services related to aircraft safety and aircraft operations; and (vi) registering instances of nuclear device testing.

Going forward strategic use of space might be in some senses reimagined. Strategic analyses have noted that some of the challenges of the future may relate to shortages of strategic resources such as water, depletion of aquifers, or other consequences of climate change. Thus, deployment of satellites for future strategic needs might be associated with monitoring climate change, international peacekeeping or international law enforcement associated with resource shortages, etc. As global population and urbanization grows, desertification and water shortages, and concerns with illegal migration or international law enforcement increase over time, there may be new missions for space system usage in a broader definition of military and defense activities. These aspects will also be briefly discussed in this chapter.

Financial oversight organizations have consistently suggested that cost savings can be achieved by using commercial networks on a “dual use” basis to meet many of the needs of defense-related organizations and that this has seemed to be particularly true with regard to the use of small satellite systems and in the case of hosted-payload or “piggyback” systems where particular economies are possible.

This chapter seeks to review the past history of instances where dedicated or dual use small satellites or hosted payloads have been used to meet security and defense-related service needs and also to explore the future trends with regard to the more effective ways to use smallsats and hosted payloads to meet security needs in coming years. These future opportunities will be assessed in terms of costs and possible cost reductions, ability to respond quickly to service needs, and reliability and resilience of the space-based services that are needed.