Traditional satellites can do pretty well with their work, but they have a number of shortcomings – for example, themselves the devices are quite expensive, putting them into orbit also costs considerable money, and they cannot be returned if they are already put into operation. However Titan Aerospace offers an alternative that does not will have none of these problems.
A drone company called Solara designed to operate as an “atmospheric satellite” – that is, for autonomous flights in the upper atmosphere up to five years.
A photo from open sources
Two existing Solara models have a wingspan of 50 and 60 meters, and can carry 32 and 100 kilograms of cargo, respectively. The upper wings and tail of the device are covered with 3000 solar cells, which allow you to generate up to 7 kilowatts of energy during the day – at a cruising altitude of 20 kilometers, the satellite will be above cloud level, and therefore will not be affected the weather. Energy will be stored in on-board lithium-ion batteries, to power the engine, autopilot, sensors and telemetry systems in overnight.
The satellite will be able to work offline in the upper layers atmosphere until five years old and then return to earth so that his cargo can be returned, and the device – disassemble for parts.
A photo from open sources
Solara cruising speed will be around 100 kilometers per hour, and the operational radius is more than 4.5 million kilometers. According to experts, the device will be mostly parts fly in circles over a specific surface area. Such use includes monitoring, object tracking, real-time mapping as well as crop monitoring, weather, scene, and generally virtually any tasks with which a low altitude satellite can handle.
In addition to this, Titan Aerospace notes that every device can provide cellular coverage of 17 thousand square kilometers, keeping in touch with more than a hundred ground towers.
The company has already tested smaller satellite prototypes, and hopes to release the full-size Solara 50 and 60 later in this year. While nothing is known about their price, but you can already make up some idea of them by watching this video.
