GEOST bets on focal plane, edge computing capabilities for PWSA fire control

An artist's rendition of Sierra Space's T2TL low Earth orbit satellite prototype for the PWSA. (Sierra Space)

Arizona-based sensor payload company GEOST is betting big that improved focal plane fidelity, coupled with artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled imagery processing at the edge, will be the solution for the new fire-control payload being developed for the Pentagon's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).

GEOST – a subsidiary of LightRidge Solutions – and the Space Development Agency (SDA) in February reached a deal for GEOST to develop and produce 16 fire-control mission payloads for Tranche 2 Tracking Layer (T2TL) of the PWSA.

The PWSA payload contract “is a transformational win” for the GEOST team, according to Bill Gattle, CEO of LightRidge Solutions.

The payload development deal “does open up new markets … proving that some of the things we have done, at a smaller scale, we can now do at a larger scale”, he said during an early February interview with Janes .

The key to GEOST's successful bid is the company's decision to focus explicitly on development of a fire-control solution for the PWSA, rather than propose a more mature variant of the wide field-of-view (FOV) capability for T2TL. “The reality is we knew we would be an also ran on the wide field-of-view” capability, according to Gattle. “So … we went after the fire-control sensor,” he added.

“All the wide field-of-view [capability] does is say, ‘there are things in this image that look like threats to the United States,'” Gattle said.