{"id":43514,"date":"2025-12-19T17:12:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T09:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/these-are-the-flying-discs-the-government-wants-you-to-know-about\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T17:12:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T09:12:24","slug":"these-are-the-flying-discs-the-government-wants-you-to-know-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/these-are-the-flying-discs-the-government-wants-you-to-know-about\/","title":{"rendered":"These are the flying discs the government wants you to know about"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four small satellites rode a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle into orbit from Virginia early Thursday, beginning a government-funded technology demonstration mission to test the performance of a new spacecraft design.<\/p>\n

The satellites were nestled inside a cylindrical dispenser on top of the 59-foot-tall (18-meter) Electron rocket when it lifted off from NASA\u2019s Wallops Flight Facility at 12:03 am EST (05:03 UTC). A little more than an hour later, the rocket\u2019s upper stage released the satellites one at a time at an altitude of about 340 miles (550 kilometers).<\/p>\n

The launch was the starting gun for a proof-of-concept mission to test the viability of a new kind of satellite called DiskSats. These satellites were designed by the Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit federally funded research and development center. The project is jointly financed by NASA and the US Space Force, which paid for DiskSat\u2019s development and launch, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiskSat is a lightweight, compact, flat disc-shaped satellite designed for optimizing future rideshare launches,\u201d the Aerospace Corporation says in a statement.<\/p>\n

The DiskSats are 39 inches (1 meter) wide, about twice the diameter of a New York-style pizza, and measure just 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) thick. Made of composite carbon fiber, each satellite carries solar cells, control avionics, reaction wheels, and an electric thruster to change and maintain altitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe launch went perfectly, and the DiskSat dispenser worked exactly as designed,\u201d said Darren Rowen, the project\u2019s chief engineer, in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re pleased to have established contact with all four of the DiskSats, and we\u2019re looking forward to the rest of the demonstration mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An engineer prepares Aerospace Corporation\u2019s DiskSats for launch at NASA\u2019s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Aerospace Corporation<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

A new form factor<\/h2>\n

The Aerospace Corporation has a long history of supporting the US military and NASA since its founding in 1960. A few years ago, engineers at the center developed the DiskSat concept after surveying the government\u2019s emerging needs in spaceflight.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

CubeSats have been a ubiquitous part of the satellite industry for nearly a quarter-century. They are based on a cube-shaped design, measuring about 10 centimeters per side, but can be scaled from a single cube \u201cunit\u201d to three, six, 12, or more, depending on mission requirements. The CubeSat standard has become a popular choice for commercial companies, the military, NASA, and universities looking to build small satellites on a tight budget.<\/p>\n

By one measure, nearly 3,000 CubeSats have launched since the first one soared into orbit in 2003. After originally being confined to low-Earth orbit, they have now flown to high-altitude orbits, to the Moon, and to Mars.<\/p>\n

While CubeSats are now prolific, engineers at the Aerospace Corporation saw an opportunity to improve on the concept. Debra Emmons, Aerospace\u2019s chief technology officer, said the idea originated from Rich Welle, a scientist recently retired from the center\u2019s Experiments Lab, or xLab, division.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were asking questions,\u201d Emmons told Ars. \u201cThey were looking at CubeSat studies and looking at some alternatives. The typical CubeSat is, in fact, a cube. So, the idea was could you look at some different types of form factors that might be able to generate more power \u2026 and offer up benefit for certain mission applications?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aerospace\u2019s research team arrived at the DiskSat design. Emmons said the stackable flat-panel format is easier to pack for launch than a CubeSat. The concept is similar to SpaceX\u2019s pioneering approach to launching stackable Starlink Internet satellites, but DiskSats are significantly smaller, lighter, and adaptable to different kinds of missions.<\/p>\n

\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A stack of Starlink satellites prior to launch.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n SpaceX<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

DiskSats have several advantages over CubeSats, according to the Aerospace Corporation. Each of the four DiskSats launched Thursday has a mass of about 35 pounds (16 kilograms), less than that of a typical 12U CubeSat. But a DiskSat has more than 13 times the surface area on a single side, providing valuable real estate for developers to load up the satellite with power-generating solar arrays, sensors, antennas, or other payloads that simply won\u2019t fit on a CubeSat.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s current generation of mass-produced Starlink V2 satellites, by comparison, each has a mass of more than 1,100 pounds, or 500 kilograms.<\/p>\n

DiskSat\u2019s design offers \u201ca power-to-weight ratio unmatched by traditional aluminum satellites,\u201d the Aerospace Corporation says. In a research paper published earlier this year, engineers from the Aerospace Corporation claimed DiskSat can generate five to 10 times more power than a CubeSat.<\/p>\n

A disruptive solution?<\/h2>\n

What kinds of missions might DiskSat be useful for? One idea involves placing a large radar antenna\u2014too big to fit on any other low-mass satellite\u2014on the broadside of a DiskSat to collect all-weather surveillance imagery. Similarly-sized antennas on other DiskSats could support high-bandwidth communications.<\/p>\n

With this demo mission, the Aerospace Corporation will test the performance of the DiskSat platform in space for the first time. Engineers will initially look at how the satellites function at 340 miles, then use their electric thrusters to gradually step down to lower altitudes, where another aspect of DiskSat\u2019s design will shine.<\/p>\n

Flying edge-on, the satellite\u2019s pancake shape will minimize aerodynamic drag as the DiskSats encounter thicker air below 250 miles. Continual pulsing from the satellites\u2019 electric thrusters will allow the DiskSats to maintain altitude as they glide through the uppermost layers of the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary mission is to demonstrate and to understand the performance, functionality, and maneuverability of the DiskSat buses on orbit, particularly in low-Earth orbit, or LEO, and very low-Earth orbit, or VLEO,\u201d said Catherine Venturini, DiskSat\u2019s principal investigator.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn theory, I think you could operate down to 200 kilometers (124 miles) with electric propulsion,\u201d Emmons said. That is two to three times closer to Earth than most commercial radar imaging satellites. Other satellite operators are also assessing the viability of flying remote sensing missions in VLEO.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Flying closer to the ground delivers higher-resolution imagery, bringing cities, ships, airports, and military bases into sharper view. So it\u2019s easy to see why the Space Force is interested in the DiskSat concept.<\/p>\n

DiskSat\u2019s engineers acknowledge there are drawbacks to the format. With such a large surface area, it\u2019s more difficult to manage the temperature extremes of low-Earth orbit than it is with a conventional cube-shaped satellite. While DiskSats carry a lot of oomph to change altitude, their shape makes them somewhat clunky and hard to turn, and engineers say they aren\u2019t well-suited for missions requiring agile pointing.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron launcher lifts off to begin the DiskSat demo mission, a program co-funded by NASA and the US military\u2019s Space Test Program.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Austin DeSisto\/Rocket Lab<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The Aerospace Corporation is a research center, not a commercial satellite manufacturer. Officials at the nonprofit are looking to hand over the DiskSat design to industry through a technology transfer agreement. \u201cThe plan is to release or license the technology to partners once it is flight-proven,\u201d the Aerospace Corporation says on its website.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think this new technology will be disruptive to the small spacecraft enterprise and ecosystem,\u201d said Eric Breckheimer, DiskSat\u2019s program manager.<\/p>\n

DiskSat\u2019s stackable design makes it possible to launch a fleet of high-power, low-mass satellites in one go, according to Emmons.<\/p>\n

Following the trend toward bigger CubeSats, the DiskSat format could also grow larger to take advantage of heavier rockets. \u201cThere\u2019s a key scalability aspect, and with that in mind, you could bring an entire constellation of DiskSats with you in a single launch,\u201d Breckheimer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four small satellites rode a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle into orbit from Virginia early Thursday, beginning a government-funded technology demonstration mission to test the performance of a new spacecraft design. The satellites were nestled inside a cylindrical dispenser on top of the 59-foot-tall (18-meter) Electron rocket when it lifted off from NASA\u2019s Wallops Flight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43514"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}