Proteus Space, a leading innovator in rapid satellite design, digital modelling, assembly, integration and test, flight and operations solutions, has been selected by NASA for a ground-breaking rapid spacecraft conceptual design study.
The 45-day effort will encompass systems engineering, bus and subsystem analysis, mechanical and structural design, orbital operations and full lifecycle costing, including decommissioning. According to the company, this rapid delivery timeline demonstrates the utility of its patent-pending MERCURY platform, which transforms months and years of costly and error-prone human engineering labour into days and weeks of human-reviewed, automated computational design.
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NASA hopes that the MERCURY-powered study will deliver a multi-mission spacecraft conceptual design that offers enhanced mission performance, faster timeline to launch, reduced costs and enhanced reliability. Key deliverables, tailored to NASA’s specific multi-payload effort, include:
- Systems and mission design: a trade-space visualisation of hundreds to thousands of mission-closing satellite designs with an analysis of the differences and alternatives.
- Mechanical design: a CAD model visualising the bus and payloads integrated, along with mass estimates and a frame design optimised for mission requirements.
- Structural analysis: a finite element model informing launch and on-orbit performance.
- Orbital and operations design: an orbital model, including a delta-v budget and an operational lifetime analysis.
- Cost estimates: a rough order of magnitude cost for the satellite, assembly, integration, and test, launch and operations.
‘Being selected by NASA for this effort is a testament to the growing demand for MERCURY, our automated computational engineering platform,’ said David Kervin, CEO of Proteus Space. ‘Human-labour-generated satellite system designs and digital modelling processes are too slow, error prone and costly in this fast, new era of technological innovation. Our science and national security customers want to rapidly investigate different kinds of satellite architectures, analyse alternatives, simulate digital models and twins, and change their minds without regret. Our MERCURY platform is modernising the industry using AI-enabled, advanced automated computational engineering to deliver custom, payload- and mission-optimised satellite designs and their digital models in days and weeks, not months and years.’