Space low earth orbit architecture

The future defence and security of Canada will rely on reliable, resilient and secure communications to connect people, military assets and sensors everywhere. While conventional geostationary satellites may be part of a potential communications solution, the Arctic region is out of their range, and even in southern Canada they have limited throughput and long transmission delays. In recent years, large constellations of commercial satellites at low earth orbit (LEO) have shown that they can process a high volume of data with minimal delay, known as high throughput, low latency communications, to users across the world, including Canada’s Arctic.

DRDC’s space LEO architecture initiative seeks to exploit these technological advances, undertaking research, development and analysis into the key technologies required to build a network of space assets which will connect different types of on-orbit capability, such as remote sensing, imaging and data processing. The goal is a resilient, flexible, scalable and secure space-based information ecosystem that can fulfil a wide variety of possible future mission requirements.

Calls for proposals

Find current and past defence research contract opportunities on Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)’s website CanadaBuys.