
UK engineers have completed the build of the novel Quantum satellite - gyre007
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46825269
======
portillo
That headline is quite misleading, as there are several re-configurable
"software-defined" satellites active in orbit, each one presenting different
degrees of flexibility. Dynamic power and frequency allocation have been used
since the first HTS (Viasat-1, Echostar 23...), while dynamic bandwidth
allocation is also a standard design in new satellites (Viasat-2, for
example).

Furthermore, other satellites such as Hispasat 36W-1 already have direct
radiating arrays / phase-arrays (which I am pretty sure is the core technology
of EUTELSAT's Quantum). Sure, Quantum might be (one of) the first satellite
that makes full use of this technology, but this is the current trend and all
the big satellite comms. companies are going to launch a similar satellite in
the next 1-2 years (SES-17, SpaceX Starlink, mPower...).

In any case, I believe that the dynamic resource management (DRM) software
(which EUTELSAT claims to have developed) will play a crucial role in all
these new satellites. Given the payload flexibility, optimally configuring all
these degrees of freedom will become a very very challenging task.

~~~
sctb
We've updated the submitted title (“UK engineers have finished building
Quantum, the first software-defined satelite”) to the sub-heading from the
article. It's too easy to get things wrong when editorializing! This is one
reason the guidelines ask submitters not to do it.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
foobar1962
I found the title confusing too.

May I suggest leaving the word "Quantum" out of the title completely. IMHO
it's rather cheeky (and misleading) for the satellite manufacturers to use
that name at all for something that doesn't involve quantum-mechanics-based
technology.

~~~
davegardner
The word quantum has been used as a synonym for quantity since the mid-16th
century. Its use as a physics term is a much more recent development, which
has definitely not fully replaced the original definition yet.

~~~
varjag
Noone thinks about Renaissance use of Latin when seeing a headline about
quantum satellites.

~~~
wyattpeak
Renaissance use of Latin? It's a moderately common modern English word. Did
people think Quantum of Solace was about physics?

As it happens I agree the title is very confusing, but I think you're
overstating the point.

~~~
varjag
Well it was you who picked the century to illustrate your point.

Many of scientific/technology terms have different colloquial uses. Context
makes all the difference, as am sure you are fully aware.

------
pliny
Within a year: First astronaut travelling to GEO, to physically reset a
satellite with a broken ssh config.

~~~
GlenTheMachine
An astronaut at GEO would exceed their lifetime radiation exposure limit in
less than an hour (in a spacesuit). The reset is gonna be robotic.

~~~
w1nt3rmu4e
That's interesting. Do you have source(s) for that?

I'm not a 'the Moon landings were faked' person, but how does this reconcile
with manned Moon missions?

[Edit]

So I don't have to add another comment:

My first thought was, 'oh shit, how long before someone hacks one of these and
repurposes it?'

~~~
GlenTheMachine
The Apollo astronauts a) were inside a spaceship, not performing an EVA; and
b) passed through the Van Allen belts pretty quickly; and c) the Apollo
trajectory was actually optimized to expose astronauts to the least amount of
radiation possible.

This is a pretty good discussion:

[https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/vintage-space/apollo-
roc...](https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/vintage-space/apollo-rocketed-
through-van-allen-belts#page-3)

Unfortunately the references I have for the “one hour” claim (which, to be
fair, has a lot of uncertainty associated with it - it depends on the current
space weather, where you are wrt your spacecraft, the engineering of your
space suit, etc.) are all behind paywalls. Here’s one, if you can get it:

[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4613-1567-...](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4613-1567-4_6)

------
shaklee3
This article has a lot of incorrect information in it, specifically how it
alludes to this being the first of its kind.

"Quantum's coverage, bandwidth, power and frequency can all be altered in
orbit."

All of those can be configured on several different modern satellites.

"It will bring unprecedented flexibility to our customers, allowing for in-
orbit payload re-configuration and taking customisation to a new level, while
also opening the way to a paradigm shift in the manufacture of
telecommunications satellites,"

There is nothing this satellite does that's more customizable than others,
such as mexsat from 2010:

[https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2010-12-20-Boeing-to-
Build-3-Sa...](https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2010-12-20-Boeing-to-
Build-3-Satellite-System-for-Government-of-Mexico)

"The components and technologies that enable software-defined satellites will
become more and more the future of our industry,"

There is a trend towards the opposite, since space resources are a precious
resource, allocating a substantial portion of the spacecraft for signal
processing makes the bandwidth demand gap fall behind faster.

------
okl
The part of the satellite being "software-defined" is probably the phased-
array antennas of the transponder/payload. I think it is unlikely that all the
GHz RF processing is realized as SDR. Maybe someone can dig up more
information?

~~~
FPGAhacker
It’s possible it’s the GHz RF. Even for hardware processing, you have to
downconvert to something reasonable like a couple hundred MHz before it’s
feasible to digitally signal process.

If your software/processor/bus can’t keep up with that data rate, you can
always go lower in hardware and still leave enough headroom for software to
tune and process.

I haven’t looked into SDR much though it’s in my “someday” list, so I don’t
know how much is typically expected to be handled in software. I suppose it
varies depending on the spectrum of interest.

My last project, the GHz spectrum was downcoverted in analog to the hundreds
of MHz range, and digitally downconverted further with low pass filters and
frequency shifting and then piping out over pcie to a ring buffer for software
to do the interesting signal processing.

Xilinx has an RF Zynq FPGA in the works, or maybe available now, that has the
analog front end conversion capabilities paired with an fpga with an embedded
arm[1]. (No affiliation)

1\.
[https://www.xilinx.com/products/technology/rfsampling.html](https://www.xilinx.com/products/technology/rfsampling.html)

~~~
shaklee3
They can definitely do on-board signal processing once down converted. This
will have a substantial hit on total capacity though, which is what matters
most. See my other comments.

Btw, you cannot use standard fpgas in space. They are a special kind hardened
for radiation and redundancy.

~~~
Rebelgecko
Standard FPGAs _can_ be usable in space depending on where they are. Consumer
stuff can do OK in LEO, especially if you have some sort of watchdog or voting
system.

~~~
shaklee3
I suppose you could, but all FPGA manufacturers sell space versions of their
FPGAs. Do you know of anyone using non-space-grade?

[https://www.xilinx.com/applications/aerospace-and-
defense/sp...](https://www.xilinx.com/applications/aerospace-and-
defense/space.html)

~~~
Rebelgecko
I haven't been following this space that closely for a few years, but when I
was more familiar with the offerings from Xilinx and Altera, anything rad-hard
was at least 2 generations behind. This led to correspondingly worse
performance and SWaP (size, weight, and power). Some of the fancier SOCs like
Xilinx Zynqs didn't have any rad-hard version at all. Using consumer or
automotive grade chips is not unheard of, especially for lower budget things
in LEO like cubesats.

~~~
shaklee3
They're behind, but you may end up installing far more of the non-hardened
versions, and do the redundancy yourself. That seems like a tough trade-off to
do given that there's no fixing it once it's there.

------
kiallmacinnes
Serious question, I know, I know, everyone is sick of the word .. I'll not use
it! .. but:

How does the UK leaving the EU affect it's ESA membership?

Can the UK continue to use the French territorial launch sites as easily as
they do now?

And finally, from the article, "23 of its 38 currently operational spacecraft
as having British input". I wonder are they referring the to Isle of Man here?
Which has plenty of satellite companies due to, from what I understand, a very
favourable tax regime for space companies.

~~~
marsokod
It does not affect the ESA membership, and does not prevent UK companies to
launch from French Guyana. However, shipping may become a bit more complex and
costly, and procurement will be thougher, especially in the first months.

------
dana321
Here was me thinking that they were about to launch the first satellite with
quantum processors onboard.

~~~
grifball
Yeah, now when I web search for "quantum satellite" I won't find all the cool
research they're doing in China on space quantum entanglement

------
jtms
I wonder if they have automated builds :-)

    
    
      git push orbit master

------
mshockwave
I'm more interested in the security concern

~~~
jrgd
That was exactly my first thought; once hijacked, what can you do with this
and for how long before it shows?

