© Planet - Proprietary & ConfidentialLake Saint Pierre, Canada APR 14, 2016

Small Satellite Reliability

Small Satellite Reliability TIMCalifornia Institute of TechnologyPresenting: Michael T. Rubel2017/02/14

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About Planet

• Private SF-based Earth-imaging company, founded 2010• Design/build/operate our own 3U “Dove” satellites, 118 deployed to date;

>12 launches since 2013; also Rapid Eye and (pending) Terra Bella• Goal is to image the whole world every day

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Eighty-eight of our Dove satellites are due to launch on a single rocket tonight.

But sure, we have a totally rational* risk posture.

• Keep fingers crossed• Pancakes

*N.B.: I rode here today on a motorcycle.

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Agile Aerospace

Iterate rapidly to increase capability, even if it impacts reliability

90% of 100 > 99.9% of 5

Key factors:

● Fast Hardware / SW iteration● Redundancy at the spacecraft, not component, level● Regular launches (easier said than done)● Integrated organization: everything but the rocket● Tolerate but contain failures● Keep complexity on the ground if possible● Extensive automated ground testing● Refine with on-orbit experiments

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Mission 1-Launch History

Dove 1&2 - April 2013Dove 3&4 - November 2013Flock 1 - Feb 2014 (28 satellites, ISS)Flock 1b - July 2014 (20 satellites, ISS)Flock 1c - June 2013 (12 satellites, SSO)Flock 1d - October 2014 (Antares launch failure)Flock 1d’ - March 2015 (2 satellites, ISS)Flock 1e - April 2015 (14 satellites, ISS)Flock 1f - June 2015 (Falcon 9 launch failure)Flock 2b - August 2015 (14 satellites, ISS)Flock 2e - December 2015 (12 satellites, ISS)Flock 2e’ - March 2016 (12 satellites, ISS)Flock 2p - June 2016 (12 satellites, SSO)Flock 3p - January 2017 (88 satellites, SSO)

118 Doves deployed, ~60 still in orbit, 88 more on the way tonight

Mission 1 final population: >100 operational satellites

Also ~30 antennas at ~10 ground station sites around the world

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Planet Spacecraft Engineering

Planet design, manufacturing, test, and operations under one roof

Around 50 staff total in spacecraft group (excl. mfg/test and product)

Loose team boundaries and lots of interaction

Focus on rapid iteration and low friction

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Risk Posture for Software

● Targeted 15% device failure rate in early builds○ Measurable risk-posture○ Keeps development velocity high

● Experimental Fleet○ Utilize broken assets

■ ex. Broken Camera == Great for testing battery heater SW○ Satellite “checkout”

■ Developer can have full access to an asset for experimentation■ Operators help triage on-orbit experiments

● Capabilities added when needed, even post launch○ Ranging added to radios when we realized that JSPoC orbits weren’t

accurate○ Conops has changed due to lessons learned, launch slippages, GS

procurement, etc

Dozens of Cheap Satellites

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Fast Iteration: Enablers

● Risk tolerant mission design○ For us: Quantity, cadence

● Low friction updates○ Automate testing and rollout○ Be able to rollback ○ Tolerate transient failures/outages

● Small, flexible team + Agile planning● Code review● Automated code builds, unit tests, integration tests

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Questions?