Unmanned Systems Technology 016 | Hydromea Vertex AUV | Power management systems | Unmanned Space Vehicles | Continental CD-155 turbodiesel | Swift 020 UAV | ECUs | DSEI 2017 Show report

46 team at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in California. Its Laser Communications Relay Demonstration will be tested on a satellite later in 2017 so that researchers can determine the best data encoding schemes and tracking algorithms. Near-Earth operation Space planes are back in vogue again following ten years without the Space Shuttle. This time around though they are smaller and designed with autonomous operation in mind. The X-37B is a good example. Developed and built by Boeing, it has been operated by the US Air Force for the past seven years. Just 8.8 m long, it is completely unmanned, which allowed it to orbit the Earth for a record 718 days earlier in 2017, testing out propulsion systems and satellite comms equipment. The fifth mission takes off later in 2017 and is expected to last well over two years. It has now been joined by the Dream Chaser, developed by Sierra Nevada Corporation. This will be carrying cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2020 to 2024. At 9 m long, the Dream Chaser is similar to the X-37B but it can carry up to seven passengers. It too has been designed for fully autonomous operation, and can be re-used more than 15 times. Both the crewed and unmanned versions have autonomous take-off and landing, so a pilot is not required, and it uses a folding wing design so that it can be launched from current and future rockets such as the Atlas V, pull up alongside the ISS and then on its return use the extended wings to land automatically on a traditional runway rather than at sea. Another feature of its design is a disposable cargo module that can carry more than 5 tonnes of pressurised and unpressurised cargo. Solar arrays on the cargo module increase flight time in space and allow for powered payloads. A second round of Dream Chaser flight tests at NASA’s Armstrong Research Center is running at the end of 2017. Another application for the unmanned version and the powered payload is to capture space debris – of which it is estimated there are more than 750,000 pieces, of more than a centimetre in size – as it travels in orbit. The debris poses a threat to craft, as even a tiny piece of metal moving at speed can cause significant damage, and collecting the debris is not a simple task. International governmental forum the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee has proposed that all satellites in a LEO should be removed within 25 years to avoid the build-up of debris, but the traditional de-orbiting method of using a rocket is expensive. Astroscale Japan, for example, is therefore working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to develop new techniques to capture that debris via an experimental October/November 2017 | Unmanned Systems Technology The Dream Chaser can be used autonomously or with a crew, and is undergoing flight tests before launch schedules for 2019 (Courtesy of Sierra Nevada)