地球軌道似乎突然變得空前繁忙

In may 1999 a group of researchers from the Technical University of Berlin launched an unusual satellite. At a time when most of the machinery in orbit weighed thousands of kilograms, tubsat was a petite 45kg. A box that measured 32cm on each side, it carried three video cameras, the idea being to test whether such a titchy spacecraft could capture useful imagery of Earth. The researchers cited low mass, and the resultant low costs, as the benefits of such comparatively tiny satellites. They promised to open up “new market areas” for Earth observation.

柏林工業(yè)大學(xué)的一個(gè)研究小組在1999 年5 月發(fā)射了一顆不同尋常的衛(wèi)星。當(dāng)時(shí)，在地球軌道上運(yùn)行的航天器大多重達(dá)數(shù)千公斤，這顆名為TUBSAT 的衛(wèi)星卻很嬌小，僅重45 公斤。它是一個(gè)邊長(zhǎng)32 厘米的箱子，載有三臺(tái)攝像機(jī)。研究人員想用它來測(cè)試如此微型的航天器能否捕捉到有用的地球影像。他們指出，這類相對(duì)微小的衛(wèi)星的優(yōu)勢(shì)是質(zhì)量輕，因而成本也低，有望為地球觀測(cè)開辟“新的市場(chǎng)領(lǐng)域”。

It took around 15 years for them to be proved right. A few such “smallsats”, sometimes called nanosats or CubeSats, were launched every year in the decade up until 2014, when numbers spiked. Planet Labs, a Californian company founded by ex-Nasa engineers, launched 33 smallsats that year, each weighing just a few kilos. Planet’s satellites are spiritual successors of tubsat, designed to gather imagery of the Earth’s surface. The firm sells its customers images from around 150 active satellites it has in orbit.

他們的想法用了大約15 年才得以證實(shí)。2014 年之前的十年內(nèi)，每年都有幾顆這類“小型衛(wèi)星”(也叫“微納衛(wèi)星”或“立方衛(wèi)星”)被送入軌道，2014 年的發(fā)射數(shù)量更是激增。由前美國(guó)宇航局工程師在加州創(chuàng)立的美國(guó)公司行星實(shí)驗(yàn)室(Planet Labs)在那一年就發(fā)射了33 顆小型衛(wèi)星，每顆只有幾公斤重。這些衛(wèi)星繼承了TUBSAT 的精神，專門用于收集地球表面影像。目前，該公司通過約150 顆活躍的在軌衛(wèi)星來收集圖像，賣給客戶。

Planet Labs is an industry leader. The cost of making and launching satellites has tumbled, enabling an array of new space-based businesses to emerge. In the past year smallsats have been launched that can use radar to peer through clouds or darkness. Others watch for illegal shipping activities and yet more are built to service or move around other satellites in orbit. Perhaps the most outlandish venture is a rescue satellite, designed to pull other satellites down to safety if something goes wrong, to avoid catastrophic collisions with neighbours.

行星實(shí)驗(yàn)室是行業(yè)領(lǐng)頭羊。制造和發(fā)射衛(wèi)星的成本已大幅下降，一系列太空新業(yè)務(wù)因而浮現(xiàn)。過去一年發(fā)射的小型衛(wèi)星中，有些可利用雷達(dá)穿透云層或黑暗進(jìn)行觀測(cè)，也有些被用于監(jiān)測(cè)非法航運(yùn)活動(dòng)，更多的是為了維護(hù)或移動(dòng)其他在軌衛(wèi)星。其中最稀奇的也許是一顆救援衛(wèi)星，當(dāng)其他衛(wèi)星出現(xiàn)故障時(shí)可將它們拖至安全位置，避免與相鄰衛(wèi)星發(fā)生災(zāi)難性碰撞。

Much of the recent attention has focused on the internet-connection constellations in low Earth orbit proposed by SpaceX and OneWeb. These have long been planned, and the billions of dollars required to install them are feeding the entire market.

最近備受關(guān)注的是SpaceX 和OneWeb 計(jì)劃建設(shè)的提供高速互聯(lián)網(wǎng)服務(wù)的近地軌道衛(wèi)星網(wǎng)絡(luò)。這些項(xiàng)目計(jì)劃已久，部署它們所需的數(shù)十億美元資金正令整個(gè)市場(chǎng)受惠。

Many of the capabilities of the new smallsats already existed, but mostly as government projects or as secretive intelligence operations. America has long sought to inhibit the commercial development of radar satellites, so powerful are their surveillance properties. Military radar satellites, which bounce radio waves off the surface of the Earth in order to build up a detailed picture of it, were said to be capable of detecting enemy submarines by measuring the tiny disturbances that their wakes left in the curvature of the surface of the ocean.

這些新式小衛(wèi)星的許多功能早已存在，只不過以往主要被用于政府項(xiàng)目或秘密情報(bào)行動(dòng)。美國(guó)早就在試圖壓制雷達(dá)衛(wèi)星的商業(yè)開發(fā)，因?yàn)樗鼈兊膫刹煨阅芊浅?qiáng)大。軍用雷達(dá)衛(wèi)星接收從地球表面反射的無線電波，以此繪制出詳細(xì)圖像，據(jù)說能通過測(cè)量潛艇尾跡對(duì)洋面曲率造成的微小干擾來探測(cè)敵方潛艇。

Payam Banazadeh, the boss of Capella Space, a startup based in San Francisco and founded in 2016, says his firm will use smallsats to work similar magic. Capella’s satellites will use radio waves, rather than light, to create images of the surface of the Earth. Mr Banazadeh says that his smallsats will be able to measure the volume of oil-storage tanks, for example, which are often open-topped to avoid fire risks, simply by pinging a radar beam into them. The first operational satellite is intended to launch this year, one of a planned constellation of 36. A competitor, Finnish company iceye, already has satellites in orbit gathering data.

總部位于舊金山的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司卡佩拉空間(Capella Space)創(chuàng)建于2016 年，老板帕亞姆·巴納扎德赫(Payam Banazadeh)表示公司將運(yùn)用小型衛(wèi)星施展類似的魔法?？ㄅ謇男l(wèi)星將利用無線電波而非光線來創(chuàng)建地球表面圖像。巴納扎德赫舉例說，為避免起火風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，儲(chǔ)油罐的頂部通常是敞開的，卡佩拉的小型衛(wèi)星可以向油罐中發(fā)射雷達(dá)波束來測(cè)量其體積。卡佩拉的首顆運(yùn)營(yíng)衛(wèi)星計(jì)劃于今年發(fā)射，計(jì)劃總共發(fā)射36 顆。其芬蘭競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手ICEYE 已經(jīng)發(fā)射了軌道衛(wèi)星用于收集數(shù)據(jù)。

Capella relies on a host of new space businesses as suppliers. Blue Canyon Technologies, founded in 2008, will provide small thrusters that allow the satellites to be pointed at specific spots on Earth. A company called Phase Four, founded in 2015, will provide tiny ion drives that will allow Capella’s satellites to adjust their altitude as needed. This will let the firm capture a wider variety of imagery.

卡佩拉依賴一系列新興太空企業(yè)供貨。成立于2008 年的藍(lán)峽科技公司(BlueCanyon Technologies)將提供能讓衛(wèi)星指向地球特定區(qū)域的小型推進(jìn)器。成立于2015 年的Phase Four 將供應(yīng)微型離子驅(qū)動(dòng)器，讓卡佩拉的衛(wèi)星能根據(jù)需要調(diào)整運(yùn)行高度。這樣卡佩拉就能獲得更多樣化的影像。

Another new firm, Hawkeye360, takes a different approach. Instead of pinging the surface of the Earth with radio waves, it listens for any that are being emitted by activity down below. This kind of orbital signal sniffing also used to be the domain of governments. But smallsats have advanced to the point where Hawkeye can deploy clusters of three radio-frequency sensing satellites to pick up weak signals from the ground. The company says its primary service will be maritime surveillance, looking for anomalous radio signals such as a fishing vessel turning off its automated identification tracker near a marine protected zone. The stated purpose is to stop illegal fishing and keep ports secure, but it is easy to see how the smallsats could be used to curb oceanic migration too. Hawkeye’s first cluster of satellites has been in orbit since December 2018.

另一家新公司鷹眼360(Hawkeye360)則另辟蹊徑。它不是向地球表面發(fā)射無線電波，而是監(jiān)聽地面活動(dòng)發(fā)出的無線電波。這種繞軌嗅探信號(hào)的活動(dòng)以往也是政府的專屬項(xiàng)目。但小型衛(wèi)星技術(shù)的發(fā)展令鷹眼可部署三顆一組的射頻感應(yīng)衛(wèi)星集群來接收來自地面的微弱信號(hào)。該公司表示自己的主要服務(wù)將是海事監(jiān)控，探測(cè)異常的無線電信號(hào)，例如漁船在海洋保護(hù)區(qū)附近關(guān)閉自動(dòng)識(shí)別跟蹤器。雖然公開宣稱的功能是阻止非法捕魚和確保港口安全，但不難看出這種小型衛(wèi)星也可用于遏制海上非法移民。鷹眼的第一批衛(wèi)星群自2018 年12 月開始入軌運(yùn)行。

The data deluge

數(shù)據(jù)洪流

All of these new forms of imaging generate huge volumes of data—terabytes a day, enough that getting it down to the ground for processing becomes its own problem. Some companies want to reduce the amount of data they send back by processing some of it up in space. Barry Matsumori, a space-industry veteran, is boss of Bridgesat, a company that has developed a tiny, powerful laser, which can be embedded in spacecraft and which can beam data down to ground stations at extremely high bandwidths. iceye is one of its first customers. Bridgesat’s first ground station, in California, is already in operation, and more in Italy and Sweden are on their way. The plan is to have ten around the world.

所有這些新型成像技術(shù)每天都會(huì)產(chǎn)生數(shù)以TB 計(jì)的海量數(shù)據(jù)，將這些數(shù)據(jù)下載到地面做分析就成了難題。一些公司希望能在太空中處理部分?jǐn)?shù)據(jù)，從而減少發(fā)回地面的數(shù)據(jù)量。航天業(yè)資深人士巴里·松森(Barry Matsumori)是Bridgesat 公司的老板，該公司開發(fā)出了一種強(qiáng)大的微型激光裝置，可嵌入航天器中，以極高的帶寬將數(shù)據(jù)傳輸?shù)降孛嬲尽CEYE 是其首批客戶之一。Bridgesat 在加州的第一個(gè)地面站已投入運(yùn)營(yíng)，意大利和瑞典的地面站也在建設(shè)中。該公司計(jì)劃在全球建立十個(gè)地面站。

The firm has competition from Amazon, which just announced its own backbone service for data out of orbit and into its data centres, called aws Ground Station. Capella is an early customer of the service, which uses radio waves rather than lasers to get data down from orbit. As with Amazon’s cloud-computing business, the idea with Ground Station is to invest in plenty of expensive infrastructure and then charge startups only for what they use, making it easier and more affordable to run a business up in space.

Bridgesat 面臨來自亞馬遜的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，后者剛宣布推出從軌道向它的地面數(shù)據(jù)中心(名為AWS 地面站)傳輸數(shù)據(jù)的支柱型服務(wù)。該服務(wù)通過無線電波而非激光將數(shù)據(jù)從軌道傳回地面，卡佩拉是它的早期客戶。與亞馬遜的云計(jì)算業(yè)務(wù)一樣，AWS 地面站的思路也是先投資打造大量昂貴的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施，然后向創(chuàng)業(yè)公司按服務(wù)使用量收費(fèi)，讓經(jīng)營(yíng)太空業(yè)務(wù)變得更便捷也更便宜。

Managing all those extra satellites gets tricky when the companies launching them have to get their orbits perfect the first time. Currently, companies get only one shot. D-Orbit, an Italian company, has built a “carrier” satellite that is designed to boost already-launched smallsats to their correct configuration.

管理所有這些新增的衛(wèi)星成了棘手難題，因?yàn)檫@些太空企業(yè)必須在第一次發(fā)射時(shí)就把衛(wèi)星完美送進(jìn)軌道。目前它們只有一次機(jī)會(huì)。但意大利公司D-Orbit 已成功制造了一顆“運(yùn)載”衛(wèi)星，用于將已發(fā)射的小型衛(wèi)星推至正確的位置。

Perhaps the most futuristic new problem for the space business is the risk of debris. The concern is that, with so many new satellites in orbit operated by so many different companies, the chance of losing control of one goes up. A collision could be disastrous, producing a wave of debris with a high chance of wiping out other satellites, potentially crippling the whole commercial low-Earth orbit ecosystem at a stroke. Astroscale, a Japanese company, is tackling this problem by building a prototype craft capable of being launched at short notice in order to grab any malfunctioning satellite and pull it down into the atmosphere where it will burn up before it can collide with anything. The “rescue” craft will use computer vision to lock onto the out-of-control satellite and match velocity with it, then latch onto it magnetically. The company, which has raised $132m in the past few years, is planning a demonstration of its technology next year.

也許太空業(yè)務(wù)最具未來主義色彩的新問題是太空碎片。人們擔(dān)心的是，有那么多公司的那么多新衛(wèi)星在軌道中運(yùn)行，令其中某顆衛(wèi)星失控的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)加大。衛(wèi)星碰撞的后果是災(zāi)難性的，所產(chǎn)生的碎片極有可能橫掃其他衛(wèi)星，可能一下子令整個(gè)商業(yè)近地軌道生態(tài)系統(tǒng)癱瘓。為解決這個(gè)問題，日本公司Astroscale 正在建造一款航天器原型，它能在有需要時(shí)即刻發(fā)射入軌，捕獲發(fā)生故障的衛(wèi)星并將其拉入大氣層，讓它在與任何物體碰撞前燃燒殆盡。這款“救援”航天器將利用計(jì)算機(jī)視覺鎖定失控的衛(wèi)星并保持與之相同的速度，再利用磁力捕獲它。該公司在過去幾年已融資1.32 億美元，計(jì)劃在明年演示這一技術(shù)。

Earth’s orbits suddenly look busier than ever before. Companies are going into space because it offers a different vantage point, allowing them to gather valuable new, previously-unaffordable information. tubsat’s “new market areas” are at last open for business.

地球軌道似乎突然變得空前繁忙。企業(yè)涌進(jìn)太空，因?yàn)槟抢锾峁┝伺c別處不同的有利位置，便于它們收集以往對(duì)它們而言太過昂貴卻極具價(jià)值的新信息。當(dāng)年TUBSAT 昭示的“新市場(chǎng)領(lǐng)域”而今終于敞開了大門。