Lockheed Martin has opened a new technology test bed to illuminate the potential of a web-based, secure cloud infrastructure to enable operators to manage multiple space missions concurrently.
Located on Lockheed’s Denver, Colorado campus, the Operations Center of the Future will leverage the company’s Compass Mission Planning and Horizon Command and Control software to demonstrate remote satellite management, Lockheed announced from Littleton, Colorado earlier this month.
Maria Demaree, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Space’s national security space unit and a 2023 Wash100 Award winner, said the center’s advanced artificial intelligence, automation and cloud capabilities allow operators at any location to stay closer to the mission than ever before.
“Remote operators can instantly receive timely mission alerts about satellite operations, and then securely log-in to make smart, fast decisions from virtually anywhere,” she elaborated.
The Operations Center of the Future’s technologies have already been used to fly over 50 spacecraft in various government, research and commercial space missions. Lockheed’s software enables operators to manage single satellites as well as complete constellations of related or different satellite varieties simultaneously at nearly any location. With the included AI/machine learning tools, operators are able to control almost any size of satellite constellation, and because the center allows operators to use the same baseline software across different missions, it requires minimal staff to function.
Earlier this year, the test bed successfully showcased its concept of operations with the flight of Lockheed’s In-space Upgrade Satellite System demonstrator, displaying how small satellites can improve and sustain space architectures. In the future, the center is anticipated to command and control the organization’s Pony Express 2, TacSat and LM 400 on-orbit technology demonstration missions.
