Com Dev, the largest Canadian-based designer and manufacturer of space hardware subsystems, says it has successfully completed the airborne validation trials of the martime Automatic Identification System (AIS).
The AIS is a maritime vessel identification system. It combines GPS with VHF radio to identify ships and their location. These ship id’s can be linked to radar and a Vessel Traffic system (VTS) to automatically track ship location. Over 68,000 ships worldwide now transmit AIS data to land-based receivers with a limited range of approximately 50 nautical miles.
ComDev says such a system can now be employed in space. They’ve completed the development of a nano-satellite that is being built by the University of Toronto Space Flight Lab. The challenge has been “de-colliding” the cacophony of signals received simultaneously from hundreds or thousands of vessels in a satellite field of view.
The spacecraft will be ready for launch in the spring of 2008. The satellite would fly in low-earth orbit, and make immediate use of over US $300 million of AIS equipment already installed by the global shipping industry since it was mandated in 2004 by the International Maritime Organization.
Com Dev’s strategic AIS partner, Gatehouse (pdf), is developing software that will enable data collected from space to be displayed and managed, adding extended long-range monitoring capability.
Automatic Identification Systems have been characterized as the greatest advance in navigation safety since the invention of radar. They correlate ship identities with radar contacts.
AIS enables Vessel Traffic Systems (above), an integrated management system. It can automatically identify and track vessels without voice contact. VTS is now used in many ports. It operates like an air traffic control system for harbor masters.
Canada’s Project Polar Epsilon, a $59.9 million Joint Space-Based wide area surveillance and support program, will provide all-weather, day/night observation using space radar. It will use information from Canada’s new RADARSAT 2 satellite which launched in December, 2007.
In other news, SpaceDev announced this month that it was awarded a design and development subcontract from the Air Force for development of cost effective deployable reflectors for satellites. SpaceDev expects to demonstrate the feasibility of a new class of deployable reflectors system. Designs for deployable structures of 300 feet and greater are feasible, says SpaceDev.
“This technology takes advantage of recent innovations in spacecraft mechanical deployment systems to form large, stable reflectors for a variety of instruments and antennae,” said Mark N. Sirangelo, SpaceDev’s Chairman and CEO. “This system enables the deployment of large aperture reflectors from low cost launch vehicles.”
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