A space vehicle comprising an optical system having a field of view, the optical system comprising at least two optical elements spaced from one another along an optical axis, thereby defining an interior cavity; at least one control system comprising at least one physical element configured for performing function(s) for enabling operation of the vehicle; and at least one holding assembly for holding the at least one control system and comprising a folding mechanism configured to move between a folded position corresponding to an inoperative mode of the optical system, and a deployed position corresponding to an operative mode of the optical system, such that in the folded position, the control system is at least partially located in the interior cavity for stowage, and in the deployed position, the control system is located outside the interior cavity and outside the field of view of the optical system, allowing operation of the optical system.

Disclosed is a method for achieving space-based autonomous navigation of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) satellites, and relates to the field of satellite navigation technologies. The method includes the following steps: optimizing a DRO, and establishing a dynamic model of an earth-moon space satellite orbit; establishing measurement links, by a low earth orbit (LEO) data relay satellite, with an earth-moon space DRO satellite and a GNSS respectively, and measuring an inter-satellite distance for modeling and linearization; adopting an extended Kalman filter (EKF) method to process inter-satellite measurement data, and autonomously determining a position and velocity of the global navigation satellite system without depending on the ground measurement and control support.

The present relates to a quantum communication system for free space quantum key distribution. An emitter and a receiver, the emitter and the receiver are two points distanced by a free space quantum communication channel, the emitter being designed for wirelessly transmitting data to the receiver via said free space optical communication channel. The receiver includes an optical device capable of receiving the data within a predetermined field of view extending from said optical device toward the receiver. The system is characterized in that the emitter further comprises a light protecting device attached on said emitter. The light protecting device is configured to prevent any light coming from the environment beyond the emitter to enter within the field of view of the receiver. The invention further relates to a method for optimizing free space quantum key distribution.

A method for autonomously controlling electric power supplied to a thruster of a spacecraft during electric orbit raising includes determining a state of charge of a battery onboard the spacecraft at an entry into an eclipse during each orbit of a plurality of orbits during the electric orbit raising of the spacecraft. The method also includes determining an electric power level used to fire each thruster of a plurality of thrusters during each orbit beginning after the eclipse, based at least on the state of charge of the battery, and that will provide a shortest electric orbit raising duration and minimize thruster propellant usage during electric orbit raising.

A method for autonomously controlling electric power supplied to a thruster of a spacecraft during electric orbit raising includes determining a state of charge of a battery onboard the spacecraft at an entry into an eclipse during each orbit of a plurality of orbits during the electric orbit raising of the spacecraft. The method also includes determining an electric power level used to fire each thruster of a plurality of thrusters during each orbit beginning after the eclipse, based at least on the state of charge of the battery, and that will provide a shortest electric orbit raising duration and minimize thruster propellant usage during electric orbit raising.

Methods, systems, and devices are described for providing dynamic spatial allocation of satellite capacity based on aircraft load forecasting. In embodiments, a satellite communications system provides network access service over a service area via a plurality of satellite user beams, predicts spatial network resource demand for the service area over one or more service periods based at least in part on forecasted travel paths of a plurality of mobile multi-user terminals over the one or more service periods and respective predicted service demands for the plurality of mobile multi-user terminals, determines a satellite capacity resource configuration for the plurality of satellite user beams for the one or more service periods based on the predicted spatial network resource demand, and then adapts at least one characteristic of the plurality of satellite user beams for the one or more service periods based on the determined satellite capacity resource configuration.

A satellite system may have a constellation of communications satellites that provides services to users with electronic devices such as portable electronic devices and home and office equipment. A network operations center may use gateways to communicate with the satellite constellation. The satellite constellation may include sets of satellites with different orbits such as circular orbits with different inclinations, sets of satellites with elliptic orbits, sets of satellites with circular orbits of different altitudes including low earth orbits, medium earth orbits, and/or geosynchronous orbits, and/or sets of satellites with other orbits. The satellite orbits of the satellites in the satellite constellation may be selected to provide coverage to desired user population concentrations at different locations on the earth without using an excessive number of satellites.

Methods, systems, and devices are described for providing dynamic spatial allocation of satellite capacity based on aircraft load forecasting. In embodiments, a satellite communications system provides network access service over a service area via a plurality of satellite user beams, predicts spatial network resource demand for the service area over one or more service periods based at least in part on forecasted travel paths of a plurality of mobile multi-user terminals over the one or more service periods and respective predicted service demands for the plurality of mobile multi-user terminals, determines a satellite capacity resource configuration for the plurality of satellite user beams for the one or more service periods based on the predicted spatial network resource demand, and then adapts at least one characteristic of the plurality of satellite user beams for the one or more service periods based on the determined satellite capacity resource configuration.

Disclosed is a method for task planning of a space information network based on resource interchange. The method includes: initializing basic parameters of the space information network; dividing a planning horizon into K time slots of equal length, and constructing a resource time-varying graph for the space information network; sampling a feasible resource combination space of each task, and obtaining a candidate resource combination set comprised of the resource combinations with independence greater than or equal to a threshold n; calculating a conflict relation between resource combinations, and constructing a resource combination conflict graph; obtaining a maximum independent set of the resource combination conflict graph to obtain a global planning result; and searching a neighborhood of the global planning result, and completing a local adjustment of a task planning scheme through the resource interchange, to complete the task planning based on characteristics of the resource interchange.

A universal external port is proposed to add new functionality to or replace existing functionality of an already deployed spacecraft (e.g., a satellite in orbit). The universal external port is mounted on an external surface of the spacecraft and configured to connect to different types of external modules that have different functions, without removing components from the spacecraft other than one or more components of the universal external port. A communication interface onboard the spacecraft is configured to wirelessly receive a software patch from an entity remote from the spacecraft (e.g., from a ground terminal or other spacecraft) to program the spacecraft to change operation of the spacecraft to utilize the external module when the external module is connected to the universal external port.