DARPA and Slingshot Aerospace develop satellite identification system for the United States

Lina PortmanJune 6, 2024

1 1 minute read

DARPA and Slingshot Aerospace develop satellite identification system for the United States — The tool will help counter China

What is the story

DARPA collaborated with the start-up Slingshot Aerospace to create a system capable of identifying potentially dangerous satellites hidden within mega-constellations.

The tool, named Agatha, is designed to detect opposing satellites that could pose a threat.

This development comes in response to the expected increase in the number of satellites in low Earth orbit, which could be exploited by malicious actors to hide weapons or spy satellites.

How was Agatha trained?

Slingshot was officially chosen for the Predictive Reporting and Enhanced Constellation Objective Guide (PRECOG) program by DARPA in March.

The government awarded Slingshot $1 million for this initiative.

To train Agatha, Slingshot generated 60 years of synthetic constellation data, allowing the system to discern minor differences in satellite behavior and derive real operational guidelines.

Dylan Kesler, director of data science at Slingshot, noted that these “clues” could be minor changes in a satellite's mass or differences in communication with Earth.

Real-world testing and data collection

After initial simulation training, Agatha was tested on real-world constellations by identifying non-malicious outlier satellites within existing fleets.

The program now runs on Slingshot's Space Domain Awareness Platform and collects data from the company's global sensor network, its Seradata database, and other public and proprietary sources.

This process of real-world testing and data collection is crucial to refining Agatha's ability to identify adversary satellites, amid the growing number of mega-constellations.

Agatha's role in future space security

Agatha's creation is particularly significant, given plans by countries like China to launch multiple mega-constellations over the next decade.

Audrey Schaffer, Slingshot's vice president of strategy and policy, highlighted the importance of the tool, saying, “But as growth and activity in the space increases exponentially, it's going to become impossible for a human to really sift through all this data without the aid of tools. like Agathe.”

This highlights Agatha's crucial role in ensuring future space security.