The US government is seeking a technology to securely export data from isolated environments, where traditional data links are unavailable, to data processing centers, central decision makers, and other locations. Small satellites have the potential to rapidly provide such solutions at Low Earth Orbits (LEO) to meet existing needs. Solutions should be capable of transmitting/receiving 1Gb in less than 10 minutes utilizing Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology.
Disaggregated and isolated sensors throughout the world collect important information in austere environments but, despite the benefits of the internet and other large-scale communications infrastructure, isolated sensors collecting large amounts of data require close proximity to transfer large data files in short periods-of-time.
In order to collect data from sensors, the military uses airborne or ground assets to download large amounts of data over the air. This is a logistical issue as well as a manning issue for the DoD. Extracting and transferring data via daily data pulls will enable the military to process relevant data from isolated sensors, mitigate risk, decrease logistical cost, and increase data processing capabilities.
US Navy