Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
ELROI Satellite 'License Plate'
Once there are thousands of miniature satellites called cubesats in orbit, how will you keep track of them all? You need ELROI, the Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifier.
Holmes: we’ve developed a concept called ELROI that serves as a “license plate” for smallsats: optical emitter with milliwatt average power, pulsing a pattern that can be observed by telescopes on ground to ID them. #smallsat
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) August 9, 2018
(How to identify and track tiny cubesats)
David M. Palmer and Rebecca M. Holmes, at Los Alamos National Laboratory, have published a great paper describing this idea.
Space object identification is vital for operating spacecraft, space traffic control, and space situational awareness, but initial determination, maintenance, and recovery of identity are all difficult, expensive, and error-prone, especially for small objects like CubeSats. Attaching a beacon or license plate with a unique identification number to a space object before launch would greatly simplify the task, but radio beacons are power-hungry and can cause interference. This paper describes a new concept for a satellite license plate, the Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifier or ELROI. ELROI is a milliwatt-scale self-powered autonomous optical beacon that can be attached to any space object to transmit a persistent identification signal to ground stations. A system appropriate for a LEO CubeSat or other small space object can fit in a package with the area of a postage stamp and a few millimeters thick, and requires no power, data, or control from the host object. The concept has been validated with ground tests, and the first flight test unit is scheduled for launch in 2018. The unique identification number of a LEO satellite can be determined unambiguously in a single orbital pass over a low-cost ground station.
Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein mentioned the idea of an identification beacon for objects in orbit around the Earth in his classic 1941 story Methuselah's Children:
They gave him an orbit; he matched in and steadied down, then set the Chili's identification beacon to his own combination, made sure that the radar of the ship's gig could trip it, and took the gig down to the auxiliary small-craft field at Goddard.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/9/2018)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Space Tech ")
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?' - Frank K. Kelly, 1935.
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...' - Murray Leinster, 1953.
SpaceX's Starman Tesla Roadster In Space
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.' - Theodore Sturgeon, 1941.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.
'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
Robot Hand Creeps Along, Separate From It's Owner
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
Korean Exoskeleton Suit F1 Helps You Put It On
'Better late than never.'
Have AI Researchers Given Up On 'Bio-Babies'?
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets
'The first revelation of the new Soviet bore-pellets.'
'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
