Mission

Roadmap

PHASE 1 - COMMISSIONING

As soon as ION SCV Dauntless David reaches orbit, our spacecraft operations engineers establish a bidirectional communication channel. We then start the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), neutralizing the rotation imparted by the launch vehicle during separation, correcting the attitude, testing the satellite’s subsystems, and preparing for the next phases.

PHASE 2 - COMMERCIAL PHASE, ORBITAL TRANSPORTATION

Once concluded the commissioning phase, ION SCV Dauntless David starts the commercial phase of the mission with the deployment of the hosted satellites into a 500km sun-synchronous orbit.
During this phase ION will deploy satellites of the Spanish Elecnor Deimos, the Bulgarian EnduroSat, and the Kuwaiti Orbital Space, which will launch the country’s first radio amateur satellite. Also on board, under contract with ISILAUNCH and integrated into a QuadPack from Dutch satellite manufacturer ISISPACE, are Finnish Reaktor Space Lab, Marshall Intech Technology from UAE, and the Royal Thai Airforce.
As in its previous missions, ION deploys satellites through its innovative deployment strategy, called FAST DISPERSION, which enables an even distribution of the spacecraft along the operational orbit within a fraction of the time allowed by traditional dispersion techniques.

PHASE 3 - HOSTED PAYLOADS PHASE

After the conclusion of the deployment phase, WILD RIDE will proceed with the in-orbit demonstration of LaserCube, an optical communication device from the Italian-based company Stellar Project.

PHASE 4 - ADVANCED SERVICES TESTS

This phase of the mission will be focused on the testing of Nebula, an on-demand, on-orbit cloud computing and data storage service at the core of D-Orbit’s upcoming advanced services. The first iteration of Nebula, which features an intelligent automation SpaceCloud iX5-100 radiation tolerant computing module by specialist Unibap, will demonstrate a range of innovative applications for advanced geospatial Earth Observation (EO) and Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) applications using sophisticated, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) algorithms for extremely low-latency decision support.

PHASE 4 - SETI EXPERIMENT

The mission will also feature a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) experiment in collaboration with media artist Daniela de Paulis and INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica). The experiment, which investigates the possibility to communicate with other kinds of life in the universe, consists in the transmission of simulated alien messages to be received and decoded by radio telescopes worldwide and potentially, in the future, by the radio-amatorial community at large.

PHASE 5 - DECOMMISSIONING

Finally, ION will enter the decommissioning phase through the testing of ADEO-N2, a small 1U-size deorbit sail subsystem, developed by the German space structures company HPS, that will lead to a faster, residue-free incineration of ION upon re-entry.