TJ Pruden, Anduril Industries; Braden Smith, US Space Force
Keywords: Sensor Integration, Space Surveillance Network, Sensor-to-Sensor, Predictive Analysis, Resiliency, Resilient Network, Assured Access, Flux
Abstract:
On Monday December 19th 2022, Hawaii was hit by a powerful Kona Low storm causing widespread power outages and significant damage to infrastructure across the islands. In particular, the Maui Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance system (GEODSS), a critical Space Surveillance Network (SSN) site atop Haleakala? National Park, experienced a complete loss of legacy communications for 21 days due to a severed fiber cable. This is a key Space Surveillance site that is responsible for performing ground-based optical tracking of space objects and this outage critically impacted the deep space surveillance mission operations and maintenance performed by the 15th Space Surveillance Squadron (SPSS) for space tracking catalogue updates.
One month prior to the storm, Anduril Industries performed a capstone demonstration to Space Systems Command (SSC) that established a dynamic and operational mesh network layer between key SSN nodes: an optical sensor site (Maui), a radar sensor site (Eglin), a command and control (C2) site (Dahlgren) while leveraging the Unified Data Library (UDL). This had been an ongoing since it was initially presented at Space Pitch Day in 2019. Anduril implemented Flux, a transparent networking layer, to enable secure and resilient transport of SSN legacy data over commercial Starlink satellite communications and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) terrestrial circuits. Flux is Andurils mesh networking protocol designed to work over any network internet protocol (IP) data links and topology. Flux is designed primarily around securely solving edge-node connectivity issues under highly dynamic link environments. Anduril currently uses Flux across all its existing capabilities deployed globally. A Flux network consists of multiple nodes, each with their own set of neighboring peers within the network. Each node maintains a view of the full network connectivity graph allowing for automated computation of next hops to route messages to their intended destinations. This dynamic routing capability is critical to creating a robust operational mesh network as deployed during the Anduril SSN demonstration.
The evening after the storm, the Space Force Program Manager informed the Anduril team of the damage and network outage existing at the Maui GEODSS site, and asked if it was possible to turn Flux back on for operational use from Maui GEODSS to Dahlgren. The Space Operations Delta 2 commander provided full approval to use Anduril equipment within 12 hours to support
restoring mission operations. Andurils Flux network was then re-enabled between Maui GEODSS and Dahlgren within 24 hours and remained the primary operational communications method until legacy communications were re-established 21 days later. This capability was made possible by the Anduril rapid hardware installation and integration effort that concluded in late October 2022 where the team installed and integrated the hardware and software in less than 2 weeks that would eventually be utilized during the emergency operational period, including the server hardware and commercial Starlink terminal. Thanks to the pre-installed system and Andurils responsive capabilities, operations were restored in a few hours.
Date of Conference: September 19-22, 2023
Track: Space Domain Awareness