Verus Research has won its largest ever contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate, the center of excellence for space technology research and development.

The $9.7 million, 57-month effort is part of the Research Options for Space Enterprise Technologies (ROSET) focusing on future space communications.

Verus Research teamed with a group of industry-leading technology companies and institutions in winning this work, including Vulcan Wireless, PnP Innovations, IDEAS Engineering & Technology, Libration Systems Management, SA Photonics, Tau Technologies, Fibertek, and the University of New Mexico.

The scope of this effort includes research and development, modeling and simulation, algorithm development, and hardware development all geared to advance state of the art in satellite communication systems.

Work will include design, fabrication, integration, and test of advanced network architectures, components, and systems, such as radio-frequency and free space optical communications platforms.  This will include research and development in autonomous coordinated satellite control and communications, from algorithm development through hardware-in-the-loop testing.

Initially, Verus Research will develop solutions for coordinated satellite control and help stand up the Local Intelligent Networked Collaborative Satellites (LINCS) Laboratory at AFRL.