April 2018
Future Cubesat swarms pose significant communications challenges
... the satellite cross- link option increases access time, one ends up with several technical challenges such as beam handover, Doppler shift, need for directional antennas, increased free-space loss and reduced data rate...
November 2018
Monitoring illegal rainforest deforestation
...-mirror anastigmat telescope (TMA). It is an on-axis TMA reflexive system. An additional plane mirror redirects the beam to accommodate the mechanical envelope constraints. The result is a high-throughput telescope, chromatic free aberration system...
January 2019
Saving humanity – is space up to the job?
.... Beyond space resource acquisition there is, of course, the possibility of space processing and manufacturing, and new systems to beam clean energy to Earth and create new cost-efficient launch systems such as mass driver launch systems...
January 2019
Preparing for a robotic revolution in Earth orbit
...-like expansion on orbit. For example, large communication antennas could provide higher throughput, more precise beam steering, and other advantages to communications satellites. These could be robotically assembled in a tile-like fashion. Even...
February 2019
The Space Elevator – an alternative path to space?
... contributor on the optical design and the control system for the Kansas City team in NASA’s Power Beaming challenge. He is a founding member and director of ISEC, an organisation furthering Space Elevator related research, including collaboration...
April 2019
The changing economics of space
... optical links to gather low-orbiting satellites’ information at far higher data rates than traditional radio frequency beams. Safety in numbers The advent of larger and larger LEO constellations using smaller spacecraft has ushered in a new...
