My solution is a cube sat that uses a long range digital camera to capture and analyze images of a target area and through use of an image recognition algorithm, determine how many armed enemy (or friendly) personnel are present. The algorithm essentially counts the image of a weapon, and to populate the recognition database, my team would have to take images of virtually every modern weapon in use (no muskets or blunderbusses) from several angles, so that when the photoburst occurs over the target area, any weapon present being held, laid on the ground, or slung will be detected and identified.
Based on your guide lines, I would want it to be as large as possible to be still qualified as a cube sat, to allow for the largest possible imaging array. Mass and Volume are pretty irrelevant at this stage. Its going to be a camera, image processing cpu, Microwave transmitter (Ku Band) and a battery/solar array to keep it powered. there would also have to be some small rcs thrusters to adjust positioning, but these things will still be small enough and cheap enough to launch a bunch at altitude to get coverage of the areas socom needs to. Obviously Afghan/Pakistan, probably Iraq, Ukraine, North Korea, Philippines, would all want dedicated cubesats that could be steered or angled at AO's at those Lat/Longs.
If it doesn't whats the point? I feel like it would be useful for teams that are going through remote settlements and want updates for mission planning. It would also be useful in the field as they'd be able to have updated info every 90 or so minutes, as the sat will be at about the 600km range and it takes about 90 minutes to complete an orbit.
As low as possible. This system would have the ability to be put into a sleep/standby mode when not needed, and it could be reinitiated into an active mode by a single user in the field. I would like the battery to be rather high capacity so that theres never an emergency need for power and the solar array would keep it topped off. I'm not giving you the numbers for this unless my design is accepted.
The design still has enough space to include radiator panels and or heating elements on the hardware where needed. Everything is well shielded from background radiation due to a propriety racking system that keeps it all sealed up.
Ku band can go up to 50mb/s if needed, if we have enough of a power surplus, however, the data package will be small by design so that its more quickly received and utilized in the field. Think of a single stitched image with red dots wherever a weapon is detected. that will be the ideal deliverable to teams in the field. Received via handheld device. we can integrate it into existing devices if socom has a preference. Image size will be sub 1 gigabyte. I can't say for sure because it changes based on the size of the area requested, and what level of detail you guys will really want.
I think 20mb/s should be enough, it will transfer the deliverable in under a minute. We can probably cut that down further as we build it out and test it.
SAS system for attitude control and stability, but also 2 RCS omnidirectional thrusters to make slight changes to eccentricity.
Because of the nature of the information being transmitted, It will need hard encryption. I also have consulted a product designer to make it look mean.. I want it to be something that a rival nation's astronaut would look at and be afraid to touch for their safety.
There will be some additional development needed to ensure the resolution of the images is high enough for the algorithm to work, while still being small enough to qualify as a cube sat. Or put it on a UAV like I think it should be used.
