MDA had added one other satellite tv for pc constellation order to its present backlog, this time for an undisclosed buyer.
MDA didn’t present lots of element within the information launch posted final Friday. What we do know is that this a $180 million Authorization to Proceed (ATP) contract will permit MDA to “start engineering and programmatic actions” whereas the definitive contract is predicted in 2024.
MDA did say that the undisclosed buyer’s full constellation is predicted to incorporate a minimal of 36 satellites in Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) and that MDA could be the prime contractor. MDA additionally made some extent to say that NGSO can embody low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO). Maybe the shopper might be in a MEO orbit.
What’s fascinating in regards to the contract is the kind of satellites they’ll construct for the shopper. MDA mentioned the satellites might be from their new product line introduced in Paris, their software-defined digital satellites.
The options of MDA’s software-defined digital satellites embody:
- A brand new class of standardized and modular software-defined satellites enabled by a collection of progressive digital payload applied sciences that meet a number of non-geostationary orbits and frequencies, with dynamic in-orbit reconfiguration, maximizing delivered capability and high quality of service to customers with unprecedented energy effectivity.
- A scalable regenerative on-board processor with a built-in software-defined packet router, optimizing communication routes inside a constellation between person hyperlinks, gateway hyperlinks and optical inter-satellite hyperlinks.
- A household of digital beamforming-enabled electronically-steered direct radiating arrays addressing a number of non-geostationary orbits and frequencies, with direct RF conversion and native beam hopping functionality compliant to DVB requirements.
- An progressive constellation software program suite comprised of superior onboard flight telecom software program, a real-time digital payload simulator and a scalable constellation community supervisor.
- An environment friendly and modular digital payload resolution designed for manufacturing to allow quicker supply at considerably decreased price utilizing MDA’s industry-leading Satellite tv for pc Manufacturing 5.0 capabilities leveraging automated manufacturing strains and AI-enabled robots, cobots and high-skilled assemblers utilizing augmented actuality to speed up mass manufacturing.
When MDA introduced the brand new product line Dan Goldberg, President and CEO of Telesat mentioned this on MDA’s new software-defined digital satellites, “as we thought-about next-generation applied sciences for Telesat Lightspeed we revisited MDA’s digital resolution and it was a recreation changer. It’s rather more environment friendly than the analog options we had been contemplating beforehand, and able to delivering roughly 3 times the variety of beams. MDA has continued to put money into their digital satellite tv for pc know-how, leading to our potential to lower our satellite tv for pc bus measurement with out compromising our service efficiency, resiliency or general usable capability in our community.”
Ought to the shopper proceed with a full constellation, MDA said it could be “valued at a minimal of $750 million.”
