Archive for the ‘Iridium’ Category
Iridium’s ‘next’ big idea
Their job is to provide communications anytime and anywhere. And it’s been a busy summer for the companies that provide satellite phone and data services.
Earlier this month, we saw UK-based Inmarsat announce a $1.2bn project to launch three huge broadband satellites. The US Globalstar concern was also making news, taking delivery of the first of its next-generation spacecraft.
More on both these developments in future postings, but I want to just dwell for a moment on that other big mobile satellite services story of the summer – Iridium Next.
Virginia-based Iridium, like Globastar, is having to upgrade its current network and has contracted Franco-Italian manufacturer Thales Alenia Space to build 81 spacecraft for the purpose.
Sixty-six satellites will be put in six planes some 780km above the Earth (the remainder will be held on the ground as spares) over the course of 2015-2017.
It’s an enormous – and expensive – undertaking that I first wrote about in June.
What I didn’t touch on at the time was the piggy-back element of Iridium Next – the new constellation’s “hosted payloads”.
On every one of the new spacecraft, Iridium is making available a 30-by-40-by-70cm volume that can be filled with a third-party’s Earth or space observation sensor, up to a mass of 50kg.
Iridium likes to describe its Next project as the biggest private space venture in the world today. Certainly, if a lot of these hosted payload opportunities are taken up then Next would also become the largest privately operated Earth observation programme as well.
It’s not a new idea that telecommunications satellites should also engage in a bit of Earth sensing on the side, but it’s the scale of what’s on offer here which is fascinating.
Several studies have been done, some involving major space agencies, to look at how you might employ the new Iridium constellation in an Earth observation role. Ideas include:
•GPS radio occultation – sensing the way GPS signals bend through the atmosphere to learn something about temperature and humidity
•Ocean and land colour imaging – looking for changes in ocean health and land use, eg algal blooms and deforestation
•Earth’s radiation budget – measuring the balance between the incoming energy from the Sun and outgoing energy leaving the Earth
•Space situational awareness – making a catalogue of objects in space, some of which might pose a collision hazard for satellites
Those I’ve spoken to say Iridium’s chief selling point would be its ability to allow users to run networks of sensors across its constellation, enabling frequent measurements to be taken at many locations at different times of the day. In other words, to have a persistent surveillance capability.
That clearly has military connotations – it could allow commanders to have instant space imagery because there would always be an iridium satellite overhead (that’s the nature of the Iridium system).
But also from a scientific perspective, multiple sensors would allow you to sample phenomena that evolve rapidly through a day or look very different in day and night conditions. Monitoring city pollution is perhaps a good example.
The US National Science Foundation has funded a Johns Hopkins University project called Ampere, which will use the data from magnetic field sensors already flying on the existing Iridium network to study the space environment around Earth.
Again, persistent sensing of fast-changing circumstances.
It will be interesting to see how many of the hosted payload opportunities are taken up. Some of the big agencies like the European Space Agency (Esa) have already said the proposition is not for them. That’s not surprising – Esa likes to work on its own cutting edge projects; it’s not so interested in taking part in operational systems.
Price will be a key issue, too. Iridium is quoting something on the order of $5-9m to get onboard a satellite, with a $100,000-500,000 annual service charge depending on data needs.
It’s certainly competitive, but again some organisations, especially if they have limited observation needs, might prefer to go down the route of buying a single small satellite which can provide high data rates they don’t have to share with anyone else.
Iridium merges science with communications mission
Working under a U.S. government grant, researchers are calling upon the Iridium satellite constellation for the first real-time global space weather observations from low Earth orbit.
Led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the new space weather research program will help forecasters predict the onset of sun-triggered geomagnetic storms that could cause power outages and communications blackouts.
“This milestone brings us one step closer to accurate space weather forecasts around the Earth,” said Brian Anderson, the program’s chief scientist at the Applied Physics Laboratory. “Solar storms can disrupt satellite service and damage telecommunications networks, cause power grid blackouts and even endanger high-altitude aircraft.”
Designed for mobile communications, Iridium satellites orbit about 500 miles above Earth and cover the entire globe. The space weather application is the first time the fleet has been employed on a secondary scientific mission, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
The Iridium fleet’s 66 existing satellites have already demonstrated continuous space weather observations around the world at 100 times greater sampling density than previously possible, according to a joint statement released Wednesday.
Funded by a $4 million National Science Foundation grant, the first public release of space weather products is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2010, the statement said.
The program is called the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment, or AMPERE for short.
“AMPERE is a hugely exciting and novel project that brings the best of university scientists together with commercial space assets and industry engineering expertise to open a new window on our home planet’s response to solar activity,” said Therese Jorgensen, program director at NSF.
The program is called the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment, or AMPERE for short.
Boeing Co. introduced a new data stream for magnetic field data from sensors already aboard Iridium satellites, giving scientists nearly instant access to space weather information.
The Iridium Next constellation will begin launching in 2015 to replace the company’s current fleet, which launched between 1997 and 2002.Iridium is seeking partners for hosted payload opportunities on the next-generation satellites.
Each spacecraft will have space for 110 pounds of instrumentation, at least 50 watts of continuous on-orbit power and a communications rate of a megabyte per second.
Iridium is in discussions with military and civil government agencies for space situational awareness and Earth observation opportunities in the hosted payload program.
A company spokesperson said Wednesday that Iridium expects to announce secondary payloads on the new satellites by the end of 2011.
Gilat Satcom Expands the Activities of its Mobile Satellite Services Group in Africa
Gilat Satcom, a leading provider of fixed and mobile satellite communication services delivering advanced communication solutions to customers operating beyond the reach of traditional telecommunications, today announced that the company is reinforcing its activities throughout Africa.
Gilat Satcom Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) is widely active today in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. The company is the market leader for Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) and provides backbone internet connectivity in over 25 countries in Africa. The company perceives an increasing demand for its mobile satellite products and services throughout Africa and is expanding operations.
Gilat Satcom MSS will market two lines of products. The first line will provide a variety of voice and data solutions over the Iridium satellite network. The second will provide a host of solutions for voice and data on broadband over the Inmarsat satellite network. In addition, the company will market MSS applications for sea, land, and air communications including a new application for management of airplane communications and another for fleet management. Gilat Satcom offers competitive pricing and unique capabilities to address unusual mobile communication needs along with a professional customer service team operating 24/7 to provide customers with the outstanding technical support.