PODSAT 1 (Payload Orbital Delivery Satellite) is the second DARPA-sponsored mission by NovaWurks to demonstrate the satlets technology.
Satlets are a new low-cost, modular satellite architecture that can scale almost infinitely. Satlets are small modules that incorporate multiple essential satellite functions and share data, power and thermal management capabilities. Satlets physically aggregate in different combinations that would provide capabilities to accomplish diverse missions.
The Payload Orbital Delivery system Satellite (PODSat) is a four-HISat PAC itegrated with a POD chassis nearing the start of assembly, integration, and test. PODSat was integrated with the SSL built Hispasat 30W-6 satellite. PODSat is designed to be the free-flying element of the DARPA-funded Hosted POD Assembly (HPA), which seeks to provide a platform (the POD) and a separation mechanism for it be deployed by a host spacecraft. Conceived to take advantage of under-utilized launch vehicle payload mass and reliable, frequent launch opportunities, the initial HPA would be hosted on a geostationary communications satellite, with the PODSat deployment occurring in a subsynchronous geostationary transfer orbit.
PODSat would provide a demonstration of the ability of cellular architecture to incorporate a structural element, the POD chassis, into a PAC. Similar to the way app-based software architectures allow easy integration of new software, celluar architectures could offer that same feature to a variety of hardware options.
The PODSat experiment would also provide valuable in-orbit data on an orbit environmental regime outside of the first two experiments.
