Anduril Says Its First Satellite Can Track Spacecraft in Orbital Night

Anduril Industries announced that its first satellite, Anduril-216, successfully demonstrated a long-wave infrared sensor that can track other spacecraft during orbital night. The oven-sized satellite launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission in July and flies about 590 km (366 mi) above Earth, spending about one-third of each orbit in darkness. Anduril says the sensor is designed to close a gap in space tracking when satellites maneuver in Earth's shadow.

What the demonstration showed

Funded with Anduril's internal capital, Anduril-216 carried an edge-compute processor, a power-management system adaptable to different mission types, and the long-wave infrared sensor. Anduril reported the tech demo mission's success on Tuesday. Gokul Subramanian, Anduril's senior vice president of engineering, said the sensor has a huge dynamic range, very low solar exclusion, and can see things in full dark. Anduril also released a single image from the sensor showing an infrared view of the Moon above Earth's horizon. Adam Thurn, vice president and general manager of orbital systems at Anduril, said the long-wave infrared capability can do both unresolved and resolved imagery, suggesting it could inspect other satellites if it flies close enough.

Why orbital night matters

The US military and commercial data providers use radars and optical sensors on the ground and in space to monitor satellite traffic. Anduril acquired ExoAnalytic Solutions earlier this year. But optical tracking can lose a spacecraft if it maneuvers in Earth's shadow. Adam Thurn said the US lacks ground sensors in adversaries' sovereign lands and cannot see satellites not illuminated by the Sun during eclipse periods. The long-wave infrared sensor detects heat signatures from spacecraft even in eclipse, giving a unique capability to witness maneuvers during those periods. The Space Force tracks satellites so commanders know if an adversary moves a satellite in a threatening manner and so it can issue traffic alerts if there is a risk of collision.

Plans for the technology

Apex Space, a satellite-manufacturing startup, built the spacecraft platform for Anduril-216. Subramanian said Anduril has no plans to start its own satellite production line and instead foresees buying third-party satellite platforms and integrating them with sensor and compute modules. The compute module on Anduril-216 is designed to fuse data from different kinds of sensors and generate tracking solutions on its own, without intervention or analysis from the ground. Subramanian said Anduril's current focus is acquiring space domain awareness data for sale to the US military, not selling entire satellites or sensors to the government. He said Anduril is not offering this system as a merchant supplier at present, though that could change in the future. For now, Anduril is focusing on optimizing its tracking sensor for low-Earth orbit, but it could be used in other orbits and eventually in cislunar space near the Moon.

Sources: Ars Technica