Real-time, Near Global, Low Earth Orbit Communications using Geostationary Inmarsat BGAN System as a Relay

Real-time, Near Global, Low Earth Orbit Communications using Geostationary Inmarsat BGAN System as a Relay

This paper describes a new service and related communications hardware that provides continuous, near global access to and from Leo Spacecraft utilizing the existing geostationary INMARSAT BGAN Satellite System as a data relay. This new communications link for LEO platforms will provide full duplex data rates from as low as 100kbps up to 475kbps with near-real time latencies and near global coverage. A team of Broad Reach Engineering (US), COM DEV Europe (UK), and INMARSAT (UK) is developing the terminal and service for use on LEO Spacecraft. The paper highlights some of the key features and advantages compared to traditional communications architectures and presents missions and applications, some previously impossible, that are enabled by the system. The development progress is described along with some of the challenges and solutions related to implementing the 3G based BGAN technologies on a space flight capable platform. The business case and decisions leading up to the development are discussed and the timeline for completing the development is shown.