Earlier this month, Canada’s MDA released more information about its software-defined digital satellite product line. This will form the backbone of the Telesat Lightspeed constellation and also will be used for more customers.
Moving to digital satellite, as opposed to analog, is expected to bring satellite operators many efficiencies in terms of cost, complexity, and time. This will be especially important to customers as the number of satellites continues to expand, particularly in low Earth orbit.
“We’ve known that it’s been a game changer for a lot of the satellite operators, because it improves their network performance, increases their efficiency, and adds a lot of flexibility – which at the end of the day, means a lower CapEx (capital expenditure) for their constellation,” MDA’s Luigi Pozzebon, vice-president of satellite systems, told SpaceQ.
MDA forecasts lower-power, lower-mass and less costly satellites that would be smaller, allowing for more satellites per launch vehicle and fewer launches. “There’s an all-round benefit for satellite operators and at the end of the day, really what matters to most satellite operators is what is the cost per bit per second, which is really the key performance indicator for many of these operators,” Pozzebon said.
Market research firm NSR has forecasted that nearly 26,000 partially or fully flexible SDS satellites will be ordered in the next decade, MDA has said, representing significant market opportunity.
At Telesat, for example, MDA’s digital satellite technology allowed Lightspeed “to decrease our satellite bus size without compromising our service performance, resiliency or overall usable capacity in our network,” CEO Dan Goldberg said in the recent statement. (MDA is the prime satellite contractor for Lightspeed, which will launch as soon as 2026 pending funding.)
MDA emphasizes it will “productize” its satellites and offer them for all satellite constellations that may be available, which also simplifies matters as that means the modular satellites are available for multiple projects.
Customization can take place in modular form, reducing the more costly “one program team per project per customer” required for larger satellites of the past, Pozzebon said. MDA is also seeing about six to seven opportunities outside of Lightspeed, and “we’re going to go after all those opportunities,” he said.
MDA says the new line can produce two satellites a day, both of which will make costs and schedule reduce with scale. Key features include:
- Software-defined satellites that can be used in several non-geostationary orbits and across several frequencies. The satellites can be reconfigured in orbit, allowing for efficiencies and power (among other matters.)
- An onboard processor that has a built-in software defined packet router, which allows for more optimized communications between constellation elements, user links and gateway links.
- Arrays that are described as “digital beamforming-enabled [and] electronically steered,” which will also be useful for several non-geostationary orbits and across several frequencies.
- A set of software that includes an onboard flight telecom, a digital payload simulation, and a scalable constellation network manager.
- Aside from the digital and modular payload solution to lower cost and deliver faster, MDA is also using automated production lines, augmented reality, and AI-enabled robots, cobots (collaborative robots), and high-skilled assemblers.