The company’s nanosatellites require the use of the “mission-critical” frequency filings to communicate – but the resource is shared between companies globally and extremely limited.
The South Australia-based business, which now employs more than 100 people, has a diverse range of products, including pioneering technology that uses satellites to detect the location of minerals beneath the Earth’s surface.
Chief executive officer and co-founder Flavia Tata Nardini said, “As Fleet Space Technologies company is now providing innovative universal connectivity solutions through its network of satellites across the globe to sectors as diverse as critical mineral exploration and defence.
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“To meet this sustained demand, we depend on access to the shared but limited radio frequency spectrum to operate our services.
“Securing access to these new frequency filings puts us in a strong position globally and gives us and our customers a real competitive advantage.
“It also represents another important step in our international expansion by giving us a commercial foothold in Europe to complement our operations in Australia, USA, Canada, and Chile.”
Fleet Space said its newly acquired filing rights have “good seniority”, which means they take priority over those submitted more recently.
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“The rapid growth in the global small-satellite industry and low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellations like Fleet’s has put increasing pressure on the limited radio frequency spectrum available for data transmission,” the business added.
“The International Telecommunication Union frequency filing system is designed to support coordination among satellite operators and prevent interference between spacecraft using the shared resources.
“In this context, the new frequency filings help secure Fleet’s access to uplink and downlink resources in the targeted frequency band, maximising service availability to its satellite customers worldwide.
“Having a presence in Europe will also stimulate the recruitment and exchange of highly skilled talent between Europe and Australia and further improve established relationships with the European Space Agency (ESA).”
It comes after Space Connect reported last month how Fleet Space won a $4 million ASA contract in May to create a device that could detect minerals on the moon’s south pole.
The company hopes the seismic station, which will be launched aboard a commercial lander, will be the first Australian technology to touch down on the lunar surface.
Fleet Space’s proposal was among 10 projects selected to share $40 million under the Demonstrator Program of the Moon to Mars initiative.
Fleet Space co-founder Matthew Pearson said the contract would help the company continue pursuing innovative ways of improving the space industry.
“The successful delivery of this project will demonstrate the ability to produce geophysical devices for future lunar and Martian geophysical exploration missions,” he said.
“Fleet is currently deploying several direct-to-satellite seismic arrays and intends to leverage this Earth capability into a device suitable for lunar and Martian environments. The solution is non-invasive and super scalable and can potentially be mounted to mini rovers for future missions.”
The SPIDER project – Seismic Payload for Interplanetary Discovery, Exploration and Research – will see Fleet Space build a three-component seismic station, which is set to be deployed on the surface of the moon’s south pole.
It will be designed to record continuous seismic data for up to 14 days and will be launched aboard a commercial lander. The seismic station is supported by a consortium of partners from industry, government, and academia, including DUG Technology, Adelaide University, and Titomic.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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