Skimsat study to put satellites into very low Earth orbit

The companies have signed a study contract with the European Space Agency to advance the small multi-mission satellites being designed to operate in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO).

The Skimsat concept was proposed in a 2016 paper titled Skimsats: bringing down the cost of Earth Observation. In it, former Thales Alenia Space employees Andrew Bacon and Ben Olivier (both now at Space Forge) said ‘The Skimsat concept is based upon the idea of that the closer you are to a target, the smaller an imaging payload can be, leading to reductions in overall satellite size and cost.’

Challenges to Skimsats include the effects of drag, damage to optical surfaces caused by higher densities of atomic oxygen found at low altitudes, and higher rates of orbital drift.

“One of the things we’ll do with Qinetiq is optimize the structure of the satellite in an attempt to reduce that drag, and that means we can optimize our propellent budget,” said Stephen Mellor, product manager at Thales Alenia Space UK.