The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a federal agency that does futuristic research for the government. They are active across a wide range of sciences and technologies. They are not a U.S. space agency, but they do have a space projects umbrella called PE 0603287E. The budget for 2021 was one hundred and ninety million dollars. The budget request for 2021 is about one hundred and sixty million dollars.
One task for 2021 is to finish the DARPA Launch Challenge competition intended to demonstrate the ability of the U.S. to quickly launch small payloads into Earth orbit. DARPA will also end the Experimental Space Plane competition after there is a final critical design review.
The only remaining competitor in the DARPA Launch Challenge is the Astra company based in California. Astra will attempt its first launch between February 25th and March 1st of 2021 from Kodiak Island in Alaska. It will then have to launch again between March 18th and April 1st. There were originally three companies competing in the Challenge but Virgin orbit dropped out of the competition and Vector Launch went bankrupt leaving only Astra. The first Astra launch will carry three small satellites into Earth orbit. The mission will include a Department of Defense experimental cubesat called Prometheus which will test rapid data transmission to users on Earth.
The Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) project was allocated forty-six million dollars. It is dedicated to creating the capability for a variety of robotic services for satellites in GEO such as repairing or refueling satellites. The DARPA plan is to hand the RSGS project over to a commercial partner who will provide a satellite to carry the robotic payload to orbit and operate it. Last year, DARPA’s commercial partner in the RSGS project withdrew from the project. DARPA is now considering a 2022 launch date. Part of the RSGS project is the Consortium For Execution of Rendezvous and Servicing (CONFERS) which was created to bring private sector and government experts together to help develop voluntary standards for on-orbit operations that involve satellites that are capable of maneuvering after they reach orbit.
The Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) project budget was raised from ten million dollars in 2020 to twenty-one million in 2021. DRACO “will develop and demonstrate a High-Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system.” NASA is also working on similar nuclear thermal propulsion rockets using low-enriched uranium with five percent to twenty percent U-235. The new type rocket would allow the U.S. military to effectively operate spacecraft in cislunar space. (Cislunar space is the volume of space inside the orbit of the Moon.) DARPA documents refer to cislunar space as being the new “high-ground” that could be controlled by an adversary unless the U.S. can develop the new nuclear rockets. DARPA wants to move from feasibility studies to demonstrations of the DRACO program in 2021.
The Planar Imager project budget request for 2021 was raised to twelve million dollars from five million dollars in 2020. “The Planar Imager program seeks to disrupt the state-of-the-art in optical sensors by developing a lightweight, compact, affordable optical payload that can be integrated into a ride-share compatible satellite bus with equivalent imaging performance to current commercial conventional optical imaging satellites. This technology will significantly lower the size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) of high-resolution intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) satellites enabling persistent coverage by an affordable satellite constellation and with a rapid reconstitution ability.”
These small sensors could be carried on small satellites that could be simultaneously sent into orbit by a single launch vehicle which will reduce the cost. DARPA plans on eventually handing this project over to the U.S. Air Force.