BLINKER: A Transponder to Simplify Space Traffic Management and Provide Realtime Space Situational Awareness

The space environment is rapidly changing. CubeSats and nanosats offer affordable access to space. Their standardized size and shape have allowed a CubeSat industrial ecosystem to flourish, which has lowered costs for acquisition and launch, and vastly shortened development times. This has enabled access to space for many nontraditional actors in the space arena. Also, the advent of large constellations, multi-satellite deployments, the “democratization” of space, low-thrust autonomous operations, and increased launch traffic has dramatically altered the composition of the space environment. Additionally, when scores of CubeSats are launched en masse, many cannot be immediately identified, some not even after months, if ever. This inability to identify the launched CubeSats from their cohort is what gives rise to “CubeSat confusion.” There are many factors to mitigate this issue, but chief among them would be the ability of a CubeSat owner/operator to independently identify their CubeSat, perhaps using one of various specialized techniques or technologies to aid in this regard. What previously might have taken years to develop can now be accomplished in months, and for significantly less money. This has allowed educational institutions to fly their own CubeSats. It has also allowed numerous developing countries their first satellite. It has allowed more traditional aerospace companies and government agencies very rapid cycle times for research and development efforts. Despite these changes, the modus operandi with which Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Space Traffic Coordination (STC) are conducted remains largely unchanged since the late 1960’s. Analysts’ direct experience with the limitations of traditional SSA data (such as cadence, accuracy, identity, and so on) motivated The Aerospace Corporation (Aerospace) to conceive of a method to modernize the fundamental backbone of space tracking technology. Drawing inspiration from the aviation (ADS-B) and maritime (AIS) domains, Aerospace elected to prototype a similar approach to determine feasibility and value. This prototype became known as Blinker.