Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices for scanning operations for co-located satellite antennas are described. For instance, a set of co-located satellite antennas may transmit a set of component transmit signals to form a beam, where a first line segment at a boundary of the beam is tangential to a first sphere having a surface that encompasses Earth, where a location on the first line segment tangential to the surface of the first sphere is above a surface of the Earth by a threshold altitude. The set of co-located satellite antennas may receive a set of component receive signals including reflected energy of the beam. A central processor may apply a set of beamforming coefficients to the set of component receive signals to obtain a receive beam signal and may process the receive beam signal to obtain a signature associated with an object within a limb of the Earth.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices for co-located satellites with ground based processing are described. A set of co-located satellites may be configured to collect a set of return link signal components, where each co-located satellite includes a first payload configured to receive a respective return link signal component including one or more return link signal transmitted from one or more terminals and a second payload configured to transmit a representation of the respective return link signal component. One or more ground stations may be configured to receive the representations of the respective return link signal components. A central processor may be configured to apply a set of beamforming coefficients to the representations of the respective return link signal components received by the one or more ground stations to obtain one or more return link beam signals corresponding to one or more return link beams from the set of co-located satellites.

Abstract: Described herein are hybrid adaptive networks (HAN) that enable the use of multiple, independent communications networks as a unified communications system. The disclosed HAN includes multiple communications networks that user terminals can simultaneously access. The disclosed HAN enables a user terminal to seamlessly roam across multiple communications networks. The disclosed HAN can increase the capabilities and resilience of user terminals by providing simultaneous access to multiple communications networks. For example, these communications networks may span multiple orbital regions, operate over multiple frequency bands, provide independent terrestrial infrastructure, and/or feature different network management and cyber defense implementations thereby providing inherent diversity and removing single points of failure and/or targets for attack.