Archangel Aerospace

Uncommon Unmanned

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Future constellations will be hybrids

July 13, 2016 By Dan Sola

The right tool(box) for the job

The military have a few recycled nicknames that crop up everywhere.  ‘Chalky’ White. ‘Smudge’ Smith.  ‘Gerber’ or ‘Leatherman’ are names often bequeathed on servicemen judged by their peers to be a ‘complete tool.’

Whilst no-one wants to be a complete tool, every company salesman has, at one time or another, attempted to sell one.  The problem is that complete tools don’t really exist.  Have you ever tried to turn a stiff screw with a multi-tool vs a straightforward screwdriver? Ever tried to saw through a log for 10 minutes, gradually increasing the amplitude and frequency of curses? There are always trade offs and there are always pros and cons. Any time we think we have bought the complete answer the question changes.

 

 


Is this useful? What if you could carry four proper tools and upgrade them one at a time?

Our proposition is that most of the biggest challenges in the World are best solved by a flexible range of tools; that choosing between HAPS, UAVs and Satellites is probably the wrong question and that the best answer we can achieve is a mixed, hybrid constellation.  Viewed in this light, the space industry should view the growing HAPS market as an opportunity to offer a more robust, flexible, upgradeable solution to their customers.  We HAPS developers should stop using phrases like ‘cheap satellite replacement’.

Archangel Aerospace have long believed that the language and stance of many industry players is competitive to a self-defeating level.

We can get more from a HAPS-enabled satellite constellation and more from a satellite-enabled HAPS fleet.

We’d all be better off putting a tool into the tool box than trying to be Gerber.

 

What is a HAPS?

Arguably the key advantage of satellites over conventional aircraft is endurance.  Converging advances in several technologies are now allowing hitherto unseen endurances achievable by unmanned aircraft.  Several solar-electric aircraft projects have attracted publicity in recent years. The most viable options to date include the Zephyr program in the UK, as well as re-imagined LTA concepts, such as Google’s Loon project in the US and Hybrid Air Vehicles in the UK.

If the military likes to recycle nicknames then the aerospace industry loves to do the same with acronyms.  Several of the programs we refer to have survived multiple name changes and acronym fashions.  The term ‘HAPS’ has been used over many years to describe these systems, originally standing for High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) and now most commonly used to mean High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS).  Concurrently, the term High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) has been in use, though quite what ‘long’ or ‘high’ mean in these terms has always been unclear.  For the sake of High Accuracy Pedantic Sentences, something we might call HAPS, we’ll put a definition down here:

A HAPS is a platform or group of platforms capable of continued stratospheric (assume 65,000 ft) over-flight of a fixed ground location for >1 month, acting in a geostationary manner when viewed from the ground.

 

Archangel Aerospace has worked on HAPS technology since it was founded in 2010.  Our staff have worked in the area since 2002.  Right now we are focusing our efforts on bridging the gap between unmanned aircraft and unmanned spacecraft, whatever the labels applied.  If you’d like to know more then by all means get in touch at question@archangelaerospace.com.

Hello Harwell

April 30, 2016 By Dan Sola

To great fanfares we have finally moved into our new offices at Harwell.  With the migration from London and Farnborough complete we have high hopes for our collaboration with ESA and STFC under our subsisdiary, Archangel Imaging, as well as the laser communications investigations that are ongoing.

 

There is a lot of interesting physics going on here… and no-one is flying it.

 

Archangel Aerospace, Harwell Campus

 

HAPS-alutely. Why High Altitude Pseudo Satellites (HAPS) like Zephyr just became inevitable.

April 23, 2014 By Dan Sola

smith from the matrix

The sound of…
inevitability

In the evolution of technology, things happen when it is time for them to happen.  It becomes inevitable.

The most successful set of examples I have read on this subject was in What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly.  The norm in Hollywood is to release a film and wait to get sued.  Why?  Because there will always be someone who thinks their idea has been stolen.  Ever noticed how we suddenly get a spate of cowboy films in a batch? How about disaster movies? Aliens? Sickly teenage vampire flicks seem to arrive by the puke bucket full? Even JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series was surrounded by a plethora of other stories about orphan boys being taken to wizard school, including one named Larry Potter.

Did Rowling steal the idea for Harry Potter?

Nope. It was just time for that idea.  Even the incandescent lightbulb, famously the result of Edisons’s perseverance, was simultaneously and independently invented by at least 23 other people before Edison, including two groups who fought legal battles with him over the patent rights

Now we are seeing competition in the HAPS or HALE space start to look serious with google acquiring Titan for $20M to start from scratch. Facebook have also acquired the Ascenta staff – the team behind the ill-fated QinetiQ 1 balloon attempt (although they were never part of the Zephyr team).

 The time has come for this technology.

People get it. Hell, people even expect it now that they see solar panels in use everywhere and are connecting to the internet from previously unthinkable locations (like on board long haul flights). Now big companies are starting to throw substantial sums at even hints of achieving it.  Happy times for someone, and Zephyr is 10 years ahead.

 

Lockheed and AeroVironment to jointly develop UAS – Robohub

February 16, 2014 By Dan Sola

Lockheed and AeroVironment to jointly develop UAS
Robohub
… that deliver breakthrough capabilities to customers.” It should be noted that Lockheed Martin has been on an acquisition kick the last year or two picking up UAS manufacturers, particularly those with products for the commercial marketplace. Source …

NASA Tests New Technologies for Robotic Refueling – Space Daily

February 16, 2014 By Dan Sola

NASA Tests New Technologies for Robotic Refueling
Space Daily
It's corrosive, it's hazardous, and it can cause an explosion powerful enough to thrust a satellite forward in space. Multiple NASA centers are currently conducting a remotely controlled test of new technologies that would empower future space robots …

IIT-K launches UAV project for eye in air – Hindustan Times

February 15, 2014 By Dan Sola

IIT-K launches UAV project for eye in air
Hindustan Times
In an endeavour to improve country's surveillance system, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has launched a major initiative for designing and building unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Advertisement. The three types of UAVs planned are …

Students of Hanze UAS will answer your questions via Skype – Eurogates

February 15, 2014 By Dan Sola


Eurogates

Students of Hanze UAS will answer your questions via Skype
Eurogates
Chat sessions at Hanze UAS Hanze University of Applied Sciences from Groningen aims to assist international prospective students in making their complex choices about future university and degree programme. The university extends the number of ways …

Brazil Increases Drone Power as Spain Transfers UAV Tech to the South … – Latin Post

February 15, 2014 By Dan Sola


Latin Post

Brazil Increases Drone Power as Spain Transfers UAV Tech to the South …
Latin Post
Brazil is quickly becoming one of the most important countries in Latin America when it comes to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), more commonly called drones. With the agreement with Spain's aerospace agency for the transfer of technology to produce …

and more »

UND sponsoring focus group for UAS operations – WDAZ

February 14, 2014 By Dan Sola

UND sponsoring focus group for UAS operations
WDAZ
Barry Milavetz, Associate Vice President For Research said, "There's really not been any research done on acceptance of UAS in the country." The Focus group will take place tomorrow and again next Tuesday. Tags: news, updates. Most Read; Most E- …

UND sponsoring focus group for UAS operations – WDAZ

February 14, 2014 By Dan Sola

UND sponsoring focus group for UAS operations
WDAZ
Barry Milavetz, Associate Vice President For Research said, "There's really not been any research done on acceptance of UAS in the country." The Focus group will take place tomorrow and again next Tuesday. Tags: news, updates. Most Read; Most E- …

Next Page »

RECENT POSTS

  • Future constellations will be hybrids
  • Hello Harwell
  • HAPS-alutely. Why High Altitude Pseudo Satellites (HAPS) like Zephyr just became inevitable.
  • Lockheed and AeroVironment to jointly develop UAS – Robohub
  • NASA Tests New Technologies for Robotic Refueling – Space Daily

Copyright © 2023 Archangel Aerospace. All rights reserved.