LMO, the Luxembourg and UK-based space company, will explore the use of small satellite platforms as part of LMO’s Autonomous Recognition of Foreign Assets (AUREA) program.
Every second thousands of satellites are swirling above our heads, monitoring the ebbs and flows of people, the weather and much more. As this number keeps growing, space companies are increasingly concerning themselves with matters of Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and looking for solutions to these issues.
“Space Domain Awareness is essential for informed decision-making and thus a priority for Luxembourg Directorate of Defence’s space strategy. We need innovative dual-use solutions with military and societal benefits. That was the very ambition of our first R&D call for proposals. As the AUREA programme met all our expectations, it is one of the projects we will fund in the framework of the call,” said Colonel Guy Hoffman, Luxembourg National Armaments Director.
To this end, LMO has partnered with In-Space Missions to work with SDA end-users in trying to define the mission requirements characterise the constraints of the satellite platform and avionics, and identify any development gaps. The study will also identify and define Space Resident Objects (SROs) and orbits of interest, among other things.
“Partnering with In-Space Missions will allow us to accelerate the validation process of our Protect and Defend architecture, and demonstrate our core SDA capability to end users within NATO and the Five Eyes,” said Michel Poucet, CEO of LMO.
The AUREA programme will focus on multi-sensor and multi-modal technologies including optical, LiDAR and radar instruments. As part of the project, a simulator of the onboard computer will be delivered to LMO for full end-to-end testing of the software, paving the way for the launch of an AUREA SDA demonstration mission.
AUREA is a dual-use development programme for SDA with funding from Luxembourg’s Directorate of Defence to support the development of capabilities for Luxembourg and its European & NATO Allies.
