Space is still the final frontier. But the ways we explore it in the 21st century will be far removed from those of the late 1960s when the phrase was popularised in the opening monologue of Star Trek.
Today’s astronauts and space researchers might share some of the same goals as the Starship Enterprise crew in wanting to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and boldly go where no one has gone before. But the philosophy behind space mission design has changed since that time.
One difference is a shift towards smaller spacecraft. “We’re moving away from putting all our eggs into one basket in the form of one big spacecraft,” says Lucinda King, space projects manager at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG). “It’s about thinking more flexibly, and producing smaller, cheaper and faster satellites. If you can build a constellation of four satellites for the price of one, perhaps you can increase your coverage and collect data more quickly.”
The way missions are designed has also changed. Today, the concurrent engineering method is used, which brings all the required experts for designing a space mission into the same room for a short, intense study. Pioneered by Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1995, this approach is now used all over the world, and has dramatically reduced the time it takes to develop mission concepts.
It’s an approach used by the Space Mission Incubator (SMI), a service King heads, which launched at the University of Portsmouth last year to help scientists translate research concepts into mission designs. Students have access to the incubator to support their learning, and benefit from being at the cutting edge of the UK space industry.
King says the incubator is “a really good way of, quite quickly, giving students a flavour of the different subsystems that exist within spacecraft, the different elements involved in the mission design, teaching teamwork, and introducing them to concurrent working”.
The incubator’s pilot project, completed last year, was to develop a mission to explore the state of the universe before stars were formed, based on radio waves captured by a satellite orbiting the moon. The concept was proposed by a scientist from the University of Cambridge and the study produced high-level design, including spacecraft mass, power and orbit choices. Two more studies are lined up for later this year to work on the finer details, and a launch is planned within three years.
The UK space industry brings in £17.5bn to the UK economy annually and employs nearly 50,000 people (pdf). King believes the SMI can play a key role in achieving the government’s space strategy, which includes an ambition for the UK to become an international space sector leader. “The UK has traditionally supplied instruments and played a supporting role, rather than being mission leaders,” she says. “That’s something we want to change. We need to develop a culture of continuously generating and testing mission ideas.”
Another change to the global industry has been the growing role of the private sector. (Early space exploration was largely the preserve of national space agencies). For example, US spacecraft company SpaceX has been transporting Nasa astronauts to the International Space Station since 2020, and is developing crewed lunar landers – spacecraft designed to land on the moon – for the Nasa-led Artemis moon mission.
Emerging technologies will also help shape future missions to space. Astrophysicist Becky Canning, deputy director for Space at the ICG, and her colleagues, are working with industry experts on how TinyML, a form of artificial intelligence, could be used in space.
Algorithms are developed that allow computers to learn by processing data without the need for high-performance or cloud-based computing. Canning and her colleagues have been testing potential uses for the technology, for example identifying land-sea boundaries in satellite images, helping a prototype Mars rover (a remote-controlled vehicle) identify features in its environment, and correcting gaps in Earth-observation data caused by clouds.
Another use could be assisting relief efforts after a natural disaster, says Canning. “It could have a wide range of uses in satellites orbiting Earth, such as interpreting images to rapidly determine whether emergency supplies can be sent via roads and bridges following natural disasters.”
The technology still needs to be proved, says Canning. “It needs to be shown to be robust, however, I expect it will have a significant impact in the sector, especially as we journey deeper into space where we will be in a very low-power environment and will require a greater level of automation.”
The University of Portsmouth – a member of the Space South Central regional partnership between industry and academia – is developing a Portsmouth Research Institute for Space Missions (Prism) to bring together all its space activities.
This includes a hardware and functional test facility, led by physicist Olugbenga Olumodimu. The laboratory offers an equipment development and testing service for clients launching satellites.
Olumodimu is also studying the physics of very low Earth orbit (VLEO) between the altitudes of around 160km and 450km. Most satellites in orbit today operate in higher altitudes, however, congestion and the growing risk of collisions mean VLEO is becoming increasingly attractive for commercial and research purposes.
“Satellites in VLEO are subject to a lot of atmospheric drag,” says Olumodimu. “We want to look at how to compensate for that, and to better understand the physics and space weather of the region.”
To find out more about studying at the University of Portsmouth, visit port.ac.uk/study/open-days
