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Buy or Build – An Analysis of Ground Station Concepts for Small Satellite Missions 10th IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation, Berlin, 23 April 2014 Jan Schulte*, Baard Eilertsen*, Martin Krynitz* Kongsberg Satellite Services AS

Kongsberg Satellite Services

/ 2 / 7-May-15

Tromsø city

• HQ in Tromsø, Norway

• Branch offices at Svalbard, Oslo and in Stockholm.

• 130 employees

• Support of about 18000 satellite passes monthly

• World’s largest commercial ground station service provider

• Operates 9 ground station facilities including both Antarctic and Arctic locations

Background • Small Satellites for Earth Observation • We are talking about a very large range of missions, differing in

– Technology

– Purpose

– Concept

• No «One fits all» ground station concept • «Buy or Build?» Question probably evaluated by many of these missions

• Missions are increasingly based on constellation architectures • Commercial missions with tough near real time requirements • Scientific and commercial value lies very often in the detection of change

• The combination of these requirements drive the design of the ground segment • Cost efficiency is THE major requirement for most smallsat missions

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Three common ground station concepts

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a) Single Site Satellite operator purchases and installs a low cost antenna system often at the

operator’s facility.

b) Global sites with dedicated mission antenna network Satellite operator installs and operates antennas at multiple locations around the

globe.

c) Existing Global multi-mission antenna network Satellite operator buys capacity on an existing ground station network. Antennas are

owned, operated and maintained by a service provider. Concept a Concept b Concept c

Required Initial Investment Medium High None Number of visible passes Low Medium to High High Maintenance Cost Medium High Part of service price Backup capability Requires additional

investment and running cost

Requires additional investment and running cost

Local and geographic backup available as integrated part of the service

Financial Risk in case of mission failures or stand-by phases

Medium High Low

Service fee Price/Pass None None High on traditional networks

Requirements for low-cost ground station service

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These are the top-level requests for smallsat ground stations we concluded:

• Substantially reduced operational cost with low initial investment • High quality antenna systems and professional maintenance to ensure uptime

• Sometimes ok to compromise on operational requirements concerning antenna availability

• High flexibility requirements for pass selection and priority allocation

• Lower RF performance on satellite would require higher performance on ground

• High degree of flexibility to adapt to fluctuations in support volume requirements

KSAT light Concept

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Substantially reduced operational cost

Small antennas (with lower RF performance) Automated operation and pass booking scheme Single Standardized Interface

Low initial investment by users

KSAT owns and operates antennas Multi-mission antennas Benefits from existing infrastructure at KSAT sites

Operational Considerations Standardized SLAs with varying degrees of priority access More customers on same antenna lead to reduced cost Backup antennas available thanks to antenna pool concept High quality equipment and professional maintenance

Flexible pass booking

Web based antenna pass scheduler Can be integrated for machine-to-machine scheduling

Technical Details

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3.7 m S (up&down) and X Band (down) antennas, UHF antennas also available

X-Band Rx G/T ca 27 dBK

720 MHz intermediate frequency standardized interface

Customer Furnished Equipment hosted at KSAT sites

Flexible booking routines, open until shortly before passes

Automated Interface - KSAT light scheduler Ka-band is emerging as operational downlink on smallsats

Will be integrated into KSAT light TT&C uplink on S-Band Ideal locations thanks to extremely dry Arctic and Antarctic climate

Locations

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Initial locations Svalbard, Tromsø, Troll

Ground Stations

Svalbard Tromsø TrollSat Dubai Mauritius South Africa Singapore

Network available now. Will be extended based on user’s mission needs.

Contact Information

Thank you very much for your attention!!! Jan Schulte Satellite Operations Kongsberg Satellite Services AS - Stockholm Office – Phone: +46 700 910 429 E-Mail: jans@ksat.no

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