How to Rent Out Space on Satellites for Different Customers

A system for managing a fleet of satellites so multiple customers can share the same hardware to run their own specific space-based tasks.

What it covers

This patent describes a way to treat satellites like shared cloud servers. Instead of one company owning a whole satellite, a ground control network takes requests from many different customers and matches them to specific hardware on a satellite, such as cameras or sensors. The system manages these requests so that a single satellite can perform tasks for two different customers at the same time, or during overlapping time windows. It also includes a logic system to handle conflicts, such as rejecting a request if another customer has priority for a specific sensor, and suggesting ways to modify the request to make it work.

What it doesn't cover

• —Does not cover satellites that are dedicated to a single customer or mission.
• —Does not cover hardware that cannot be remotely reconfigured or shared between different users.
• —Does not cover ground-based communication systems that do not manage on-orbit spacecraft payloads.
• —Does not cover manual, non-automated scheduling of satellite tasks.

The clever bit

The system treats a heterogeneous satellite constellation (a mix of different satellites) as a unified pool of resources, allowing the ground controller to dynamically schedule overlapping tasks for different customers on the same physical hardware.

Why it matters

Historically, launching a satellite was a massive, multi-year project for a single organization. This technology enables a 'space-as-a-service' model, allowing startups or researchers to rent space on existing satellites rather than building their own. This significantly lowers the barrier to entry for space-based data collection.

Real-world examples

• 1.Loft Orbital's satellite hosting platform
• 2.Shared-payload Earth observation missions
• 3.Multi-tenant satellite sensor networks