Session
Technical Session XII: Year in Review
Abstract
On the 21st of November 2013 the Dnepr rocket propelled a record number of small satellites into space including the 2 kg GOMX-1 satellite with a novel miniaturized payload for air traffic monitoring from Space. The mission of GOMX-1 is to demonstrate that ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) signals broadcasted by passenger aircraft can be received on a nano-satellite platform. The payload is composed of a deployable helical antenna and an ADS-B receiver module that is partly software-defined. The antenna is tuned to the 1090MHz ADS-B signal and extends 40cm when deployed compared to 2 cm in the stowed configuration. On the first pass over the ground station in Aalborg in Denmark contact was established with the satellite and already the following day commissioning activities had advanced to deploying the ADS-B antenna and successfully receiving the first ADS-B signals. To date, the GOMX-1 payload has collected over 3.5 million Mode S Extended Squitter Frames containing aircraft position/velocity data. It is the vision that space based ADS-B eventually can help reduce the separation between aircraft on such dense routes and thereby allow more capacity in the most fuel-efficient routes across the oceans. The paper will describe the mission background, provide an overview of the platform parts and their in-orbit performance, provide an assessment of the payload performance and discuss the future of nano-satellites for air traffic monitoring.
Presentation
GOMX-1 Flight Experience and Air Traffic Monitoring Results
On the 21st of November 2013 the Dnepr rocket propelled a record number of small satellites into space including the 2 kg GOMX-1 satellite with a novel miniaturized payload for air traffic monitoring from Space. The mission of GOMX-1 is to demonstrate that ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) signals broadcasted by passenger aircraft can be received on a nano-satellite platform. The payload is composed of a deployable helical antenna and an ADS-B receiver module that is partly software-defined. The antenna is tuned to the 1090MHz ADS-B signal and extends 40cm when deployed compared to 2 cm in the stowed configuration. On the first pass over the ground station in Aalborg in Denmark contact was established with the satellite and already the following day commissioning activities had advanced to deploying the ADS-B antenna and successfully receiving the first ADS-B signals. To date, the GOMX-1 payload has collected over 3.5 million Mode S Extended Squitter Frames containing aircraft position/velocity data. It is the vision that space based ADS-B eventually can help reduce the separation between aircraft on such dense routes and thereby allow more capacity in the most fuel-efficient routes across the oceans. The paper will describe the mission background, provide an overview of the platform parts and their in-orbit performance, provide an assessment of the payload performance and discuss the future of nano-satellites for air traffic monitoring.
