OUSD (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Space Technology;Trusted AI and Autonomy The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws. OBJECTIVE: Develop an Intersatellite Link (ISL) capability to deliver secure data to the Navy via Government communication transport satellites to reduce latency of data delivery to warfighters. DESCRIPTION: Current Field of Regard (FOR) limits the taskability for commercial assets to 30 due to the spatial resolution on the extreme slants. The Navy seeks software development incorporating georectification techniques for commercial Low-earth Orbit (LEO) satellites that allow improved taskability of these sensors to support Naval missions, providing more tactically relevant information to the warfighter. This capability does not currently exist. High revisit rates of remote sensing imagery are of high importance to the Navy. One of the factors that determine this revisit rate is the extent off-nadir that imagery satellites can make collections. Existing remote sensing imagery collects for commercial LEO satellites are limited to the satellite observation cone available due to the spatial resolution at boundaries (i.e., the off-nadir limitations). Though there is variation among commercial systems, the Navy observes typical off-nadir extents for commercial LEO satellites at approximately 30 . By increasing the revisit rates to multiple revisits per day information characterizing rapid change or unusual activity can be captured. This information allows the warfighter to make critical decisions and resource allocation. Large off-nadir collections (> 30 ) offer the possibility to increase these revisit rates at the risk of lower fidelity images. The capability must demonstrate trading performance on the National Image Interpretability Rating Scale (NIIRS for Electro-Optical, also Radar NIIRS or RNIIRS for Synthetic Aperture Radar) for increased area coverage improves tactical relevance while still achieving data fidelity requirements for maritime applications. The solution will require a demonstration of increased FOR in a test environment where ground software is able to georectify beyond the baseline observation cone. Desired performance is = 1 km georectification for extended range over open ocean and = 5 m ground resolution. The Navy recognizes that space vehicle and payload design constraints as well as data processing algorithms may impede off-nadir experimentation. In addition to spatial resolution on Earth's surface, one key AOI is geolocation accuracy. Geolocation refers to the ability to accurately locate an image on a coordinate system. It consists of 3 major parts: (i) position, velocity, and pointing data from the satellite to coarsely locate the image; (ii) georectification to take the image and match it to landmarks and identifiable features; and (iii) orthorectification to remove sensor, terrain, atmospheric, and terrain related geometric distortions. By enhancing satellite data, orthorectification, and georectification algorithms, the observation cone can be increased allowing for a wider FOR with validated accuracy. Software development to increase the extent of off-nadir collections and positional accuracy of the AOI can increase the taskability and revisit rate of commercial assets to support DoD missions. LEO satellites take between 90 minutes to 2 hours to complete one orbit and are only communicating with a ground station for 5 - 10 minutes at a time. An increased FOR delivers more tactically relevant data to the warfighter during ground station communication. This software should be able to georectify the data over open ocean when observing the earth at extreme slant angles. Work produced in Phase II may become classified. Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. Owned and Operated with no Foreign Influence as defined by DOD 5220.22-M, National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been implemented and approved by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). The selected contractor must be able to acquire and maintain a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances, in order to perform on advanced phases of this contract as set forth by DCSA and NAVSEA in order to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material IAW DoD 5220.22-M during the advance phases of this contract. PHASE I: For a Direct to Phase II topic, the Government expects that the small business would have accomplished the following in a Phase I-type effort and developed a concept for a workable prototype or design to address, at a minimum, the basic requirements of the stated objective above. The below actions would be required in order to satisfy the requirements of Phase I: Develop an ISLs concept for a low latency secure data delivery capability between earth observation satellites and the Government. Demonstrate key attributes of the concept feasibility to meet the Navy needs as stated in the Description. Key attributes include, but are not limited to, tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, and dissemination (TCPED) performance gains by adding the ISL capability to the space layer, impact from Direct Uplink from MTC-A/X, and evaluating end-to-end impacts to existing commercial architecture. Feasibility must be demonstrated through modeling and analysis. FEASIBILITY DOCUMENTATION: Offerors interested in participating in Direct to Phase II must include in their response to this topic Phase I feasibility documentation that substantiates the scientific and technical merit and Phase I feasibility described in Phase I above has been met (i.e., the small business must have performed Phase I-type research and development related to the topic NOT solely based on work performed under prior or ongoing federally funded SBIR/STTR work) and describe the potential commercialization applications. The documentation provided must validate that the proposer has completed development of technology as stated in Phase I above. Documentation should include all relevant information including, but not limited to: technical reports, test data, prototype designs/models, and performance goals/results. Work submitted within the feasibility documentation must have been substantially performed by the offeror and/or the principal investigator (PI). Read and follow all of the DON SBIR 23.2 Direct to Phase II Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Instructions. Phase I proposals will NOT be accepted for this topic. PHASE II: Develop and deliver an ISL prototype for a low latency secure data delivery capability between earth observation satellites and the Government. The prototype will be evaluated to determine the capability meets performance goals defined in the Phase II development plan and the Navy requirements. Additionally, develop a Phase III development plan with performance goals and key technical milestones that scales the ISL solution across the earth observation satellite constellation. It is probable that the work under this effort will be classified under Phase II (see Description section for details). PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Clearly identify and describe the expected transition of the product/process/service within the government as a result of the Phase II in which the small business will participate under a Phase III. Support the Navy in transitioning the technology for use in MTC-A/X. Develop the ISL for evaluation to determine its effectiveness in providing faster more secure data delivery to the warfighter. Support the Navy for testing and validation to certify and qualify the capability for Navy use. Integrate ISL solution across all future commercial earth observation satellites that are replenishing the constellation pending results from the prototype integration events. As technology continues to be improved over time, cloud-based applications are increasing services. This requires a constant reliable connection in order to receive and transmit data wherever operational. This is especially important with mobile and remote operations, similar to ships at sea. Always on' data delivery is also often used in the oil and gas industry for a digital oilfield where they need to consistently and rapidly move large quantities of data around the world. REFERENCES: 1. Strout, Nathan. Space Development Agency Wants to Update Standard for its Orbital Mesh Network C4ISRNet, 21-April 2021. https://www.c4isrnet.com/show-reporter/c4isrnet-conference/2021/04/21/space-development-agency-wants-to-update-the-standard-for-its-orbital-mesh-network/ 2. Erwin, Sandra. Space Development Agency Revises Transport Layer Procurement, With Fewer Satellites Per Launch Space News, 27-September 2021. https://spacenews.com/space-development-agency-revises-transport-layer-procurement-with-fewer-satellites-per-launch/ KEYWORDS: Satellite Downlink; Transport Layer; Proliferated Low Earth Orbit; Space Development Agency; Orbital Mesh Network; Intersatellite Links; Latency.
