Created: 2022-09-05
Updated: 2024-10-02
Company - Rhea Space Activity (RSA)
Product/Service - RUBY SKY, JAM: Jervis Autonomy Module , LUNINT
- Classification
- In-Space Manufacturing
- Category
- In-Space Manufacturing
Deep Space Navigation
- Fields
- Large Space Structures
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- 2026
- The mirror would be installed, in orbit, into a telescope that would be used to detect hypersonic vehicles.
- Lunar Resources is an in-space manufacturing company that helped RSA develop the concept for how to construct a very large EO/IR mirror in space. O
- ne of the payloads would “spray paint” the optical coatings needed to make the EO/IR mirror on a small satellite dubbed Ruby Sky.
- At the Space Pitch Day event, the Air Force awarded Lunar Resources a $750,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 2 contract, with RSA as a subcontractor, to get the project moving.
Rhea Space Activity to develop cislunar space ‘dashboard’ for U.S. Air Force.
RUBY SKY
The RUBY SKY initiative is a ground-breaking, first-of-its-kind project designed to aid the United States and its allies in the detection of “hypersonics,” as near-peer competitors move rapidly toward the development and deployment of hypersonic missile capabilities. Hypersonics represent one of the greatest strategic threats facing the U.S. and its Five Eyes, NATO and Pacific-region partners, and the U.S. defense and intelligence establishments have lauded RSA’s RUBY SKY as a viable, efficient and holistic solution to this looming international challenge.
**The RUBY SKY project functionally and completely envisions a holistic solution to the hypersonic threat, starting with an innovative space-based optical manufacturing process, combined with origami-like structures to detect hypersonic vehicles within a small-satellite form factor. **
The aim of RUBY SKY is to cast the brightest of ‘spotlights’ over vulnerable global spots, including near-peer competitor launch areas that are otherwise dark. In time, the greatest advantage of the RUBY SKY project will be to completely nullify any strategic advantage provided to U.S. near-peer competitors by hypersonic vehicles.
JAM: Jervis Autonomy Module
Rhea Space Activity to fly navigation payloads on lunar lander mission, SpaceNews, 2024-03-06.
- Rhea Space Activity announced March 6 it won a $750,000 NASA grant through the agency’s TechFlights solicitation to fly two of its Jervis Autonomy Module (JAM) units on a lunar lander mission led by Draper scheduled to launch in 2026.
- The JAM units will be installed on two spacecraft that will operate in lunar orbit, serving as communications relays for the APEX 1.0 lander that ispace U.S. will design and operate for the Draper-led mission to the far side of the moon.
- Each JAM will include a camera that Rhea Space Activity is also developing. Besides being used for celestial navigation, the cameras will be able to take high-resolution images of the lunar surface for mapping and other uses.
- Ron Garan, chief executive of ispace U.S., said the JAM units are the first commercial rideshare payloads for that mission. The lander is flying three NASA geophysical and space science instruments as part of the CLPS award.
- Rhea Space Activity has been working on JAM for several years, and secured investment from SpaceFund in 2021 to support its development.
- The company sees other applications for JAM beyond lunar missions. “This technology allows spacecraft to operate autonomously and undetected, even in environments without GPS, helping our defense network to operate seamlessly on orbit,” said Samuel Lee, chief financial officer of Rhea Space Activity, in a statement.
LUNINT
Status Comment / Notes
As of 2024, focused on lunar intelligence, secure communications and autonomous navigation. ISM activities are marked as Concept, because they were proposed in 2019. Lunar intelligence is nevertheless related to this database.
Sources
Most sources should be linked in the texts and headings as revealed by mouse-over, but here are they listed for visibility.
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