SpaceNews by Debra Werner — August 11, 2019
When Spire Global was building a constellation of cubesats to gather maritime and weather data in 2015, the startup built its own UHF ground station network. Now, most startups wouldn’t consider building their own ground systems because they can rely on a growing roster of companies that specialize in handling data flowing between satellites and ground networks.
“Most satellite flyers and data collectors are not particularly keen on spending energy on the ground solution because it’s not core to their interest or capabilities,†said Mike Carey, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Atlas Space Operations, a Traverse City, Michigan, company that offers satellite communications as a service. “We see movement away from companies building their own networks and more reliance on a service-based model.â€
The ground systems business has changed dramatically in recent years thanks to a massive increase in data volume, advanced technology and fresh competition. More change is coming as constellations in low Earth orbit multiply and individual satellites collect and transmit more data than ever before.
“The amount of data coming from satellites will increase tremendously in the coming 10 years,†said Stefan Gustafsson, Swedish Space Corp. senior vice president for strategy and sustainable business. To cope, companies need to adopt new methodologies to transfer data from space to Earth in addition to focusing on data management throughout the chain from the satellite to the customer, including onboard the satellite and at the ground stations, he added.
Many ground system specialists are turning to technology to speed up the flow of data from satellites to the ground. Years ago, Kongsberg Satellite Services of Norway relied primarily on S-band and X-band antennas. Now, KSAT also transfers data in Ka-band and the Norwegian company is working with Tesat, an Airbus Defense and Space subsidiary based in Germany, to install optical ground stations.
Increased reliance on optical communications is essential given the growth in demand for bandwidth, said Barry Matsumori, chief executive of BridgeComm, the Denver-based optical communications company previously known as BridgeSat. “With all kinds of communications needing more performance, whether it’s for space-based Earth observation or telecommunications or on the ground for 5G, the speed requirement is only going in one direction,†Matsumori said by email. “If one wants to get into not only 10s of gigabits per second but hundreds of gigabits, you need to think about optical systems to augment what can be done in the RF world.â€
Communications satellites and their ground segments will play important roles in 5G networks, said Lluc Palerm-Serra, Northern Sky Research senior analyst. “5G opens a window of opportunity for the satellite industry to be integrated with the general telecom ecosystem,†he added.
To make that integration successful, though, ground systems will need to be extremely flexible and adaptable. Terrestrial communications networks rely on software to reconfigure themselves based on demand. Increasingly, individual satellites and constellations rely on software to adapt to changing conditions.
“If you have software-defined networks feeding us on the ground and the payloads or the constellations changing on a regular basis in space, if the ground system is this static entity between the two it’s going to be the bottleneck,†said Greg Quiggle, Kratos Defense and Security Solutions product management vice president. “For the industry to be a good alternative to terrestrial networking, it’s really important that the ground system make that leap forward.â€
The goal is to establish ground systems that can dynamically change their configuration without changing hardware, said Christopher Richins, CEO and co-founder of RBC Signals of Redmond, Washington, a startup that offers satellite communications infrastructure as a service.
More:
https://spacenews.com/fundamental-changes-ahead-as-ground-systems-prepare-for-constellations-5g/
