Privateer Space

Privateer Space

Privateer Space

A new satellite company focused on monitoring and cleaning up objects in space.

Created: 2021-12-25

Updated: 2024-01-14

Company - Privateer Space

Founded
Country
2021
USA
Funding
Yes, ?
Website
https://www.privateer.com/
Social
Privateer Space

Product/Service - Crow's Nest, Pono

Classification
Miscellaneous
Category
Active Debris Removal (ADR)
Space Situational Awareness (SSA)
Fields
Edge Computing
Status
Development, Launched
First launch
2023

Pono 1 is a compact edge computing, storage, machine learning, and data transmission system built to be available to satellite operators as a hosted payload. Consisting of a high-speed SDR comms package, flight computer, and high-performance NVIDIA Orin-based GPU cluster, it will offer powerful on-orbit compute capabilities, radiation and thermal mitigation, and telemetry tracking. It is designed for significantly upgraded precision in asset tracking and prediction, with retroreflectors attached to the hardware’s exterior providing ultra-high accuracy orbit determination. Pono 1’s integration will enable operators to perform AI tasking, image processing, and collision risk assessment and avoidance, while generating additional revenue through their data streams’ integration into Privateer’s developer marketplace.

Pivoted in 2023

Privateer Space is launching a new module for satellite operators called Pono, which the company says will help make space data available at scale and at a far lower cost than it is today.

The first Pono prototype will launch on a D-Orbit space tug in late 2023. Based on the data it receives from this first prototype in orbit, the company will launch a second, iteratively designed Pono module in mid-2024 before making it fully available to customers early the following year.

When Privateer emerged from stealth in 2021, led by Alex Fielding and Steve Wozniak, the company characterized its main mission as space situational awareness: creating the “Google Maps of space,” for satellite mission planning and even orbital debris tracking. The company’s first product, Wayfinder, offers such tracking for spacecraft and other objects in space.

But combined with Pono, Privateer is now looking to build a marketplace for data, where customers can “ride-share” on satellites and task them to collect data on whatever region of Earth is of interest. In a statement, Wozniak said that this is akin to when GPS technology became widely available.

“Building a data ride-sharing economy in and from space, paired with our on-orbit AI, enables Privateer to give away the safety, sustainability and optimization technology that helps earn satellite operators more customers while giving a global user base a way to access space that traditionally has been reserved for large governments only,” he said. “This is similar to when GPS technology became available to the masses and we expect it to have a similar impact.”

The three parts that will allow our single hosted payload to provide edge computing, conjunction analysis, and dynamic tasking to any satellite partner:

  1. comms package
  2. flight computer
  3. high-performance data compute module that can be built on or stacked to process, store, or transmit data.

Thanks to the retroreflectors provided by our friends and partners at Lumi Space, which will add another layer of accuracy to tracking Pono-integrated satellites.

Archive

Privateer is hitting the ground running. The company will be sending up its first satellite, dubbed “Pono 1,” on February 11, 2022. The spacecraft, which will be roughly 3U in size (just about half-a-foot), will be equipped with 42 sensors, 30 of which are non-optical and 12 of which are optical cameras. The non-optical sensors will be capable of a precision of as much as 4 microns.

The actual body of the satellite will be made of carbon fiber and 3D-printed, using an approach that means it’s a single, solid piece with the same rigidity of titanium, Fielding said. Instead of propellant, it will be directionally oriented using magnetic torquers, a small device that generates electric current for attitude control.

To not pursue a complete Google Maps of space might not just be negligent — it could be fatal, according to Fielding. “I’m an optimist and I still am very, very, very afraid that we’re too late, that we’re probably within 24 months of the first on-orbit human space casualty. And the reason for that is just the proliferation in low Earth orbit.”

Data and intelligence platform Privateer Space is launching Crow’s Nest, a free and open collision risk assessment tool that seamlessly integrates into the Wayfinder application. The free, real-time satellite data fusion and debris visualization platform provides global transparency on space traffic. Crow’s Nest integrates NASA’s CARA (Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis) tools for conjunction probability analysis. This will allow for better insight into data predicting if and when a collision will occur. 

Status Comment / Notes

Hosted payload Pono-1 launched on D-Orbit ION in 2023. The company has pivoted, but some of the new services are still in-scope with this database. Results unknown as of late 2023.

Sources


Most sources should be linked in the texts and headings as revealed by mouse-over, but here are they listed for visibility.

[1] https://www.privateer.com/

[2] https://www.space.com/steve-wozniak-privateer-hires-chief-scientific-adviser

News, Research, Projects and Patents

Title Type Date Summary
Uncontrolled Re-Entry is Not Disposal, It's Abandonment Article 2022-10-06

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