Hypergiant Industries is building a new kind of satellite constellation

A planned network of satellites — called the Chameleon Constellation — represents a new, flexible way of building and using fleets of satellites.

Why it matters: At the moment, it takes years, if not decades, to build and deploy satellite constellations in part because of the software and hardware development that needs to happen on the ground ahead of launch.

• Chameleon, built by Hypergiant Industries in partnership with the U.S. Air Force, however, is designed to be updated depending on what people on the ground need.
• "This new constellation exemplifies modern software development techniques in space," Ben Lamm, Hypergiant Industries founder, told Axios via email.

Details: Hypergiant unveiled its Chameleon prototype this week, with plans to launch its first satellite of this kind to orbit as part of a Cygnus spacecraft supply run to the International Space Station expected early next year.

• After testing that prototype, the company aims to build the constellation up to 24–36 spacecraft that will be able to communicate with one another in space and beam data to ground stations on Earth.

The big picture: The satellites will be designed to use machine learning to analyze data fed to the spacecraft from other space-based assets, Lamm said.

• "Another use case is that the constellation could be real-time retasked for other use cases such as imaging or communications," Lamm added. "Think of it as a group of satellites that work together and can change their function based on the need from the ground."