The aviation industry is developing a constellation of nano-satellites to identify the location of planes over the oceans

This was announced by Meir Chen, development manager for future issues at the Mabat company of the aerospace industry at the International Space Conference in Herzliya

The aerospace industry is currently developing a constellation of nano-satellites that will operate in narrowband communication, and perform various tasks from space. This is what Meir Chen, director of development for future issues at the Mabat-Space company of the aerospace industry, who represented the Mabat plant at the fourth Ilan Ramon International Space Conference held last week by the Fisher Institute and the Ministry of Science to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the Columbia shuttle disaster, in which Col. Ilan Ramon.

Chen says that a single satellite, no matter how complex it is, has limitations. Even a satellite like Texar, which is a technological achievement in itself as a satellite that takes photos in the radar field and allows observations anywhere and in any weather conditions, is not able to bring the images to the customer in the shortest possible time, because it is a single satellite. The variety of sensors possible for observation from space is endless, and we sometimes want to observe certain sites with a variety of sensors as quickly as possible, therefore the solution is a combination of sensors on each satellite and above all - a combination of different satellites that will observe the same point at different wavelengths. Chen explains.

In his speech at the space conference, Chen said: "Constellation will make it possible to solve some of the limitations of a single satellite, it is possible to direct them to a relevant area, to sense that area with several sensors. I can build these satellites and arrange the constellation as I wish. I can integrate sensors and get new capabilities that we never dreamed of before."

According to him, the new concept known as RIMON enables a variety of applications. One of them is 4D mapping. 5-XNUMX satellites will photograph the same area at small time intervals and within a year it will be possible to compile a high resolution XNUMXD map of the entire planet. Another option is to launch a constellation of very small satellites in narrowband communication to transmit the track and location data of all the planes flying in the world in real time and the information will be transmitted to the control centers. Today it is impossible to really know where each plane is, especially when flying over the ocean, in the vast areas that are not covered by control towers."

Another option is to take frequent photos using satellites in a group, at disaster-prone sites and monitor them on an ongoing basis, and not just take photos retrospectively. For example, it is possible to follow the advancing line of lava on the slopes of a volcano or to monitor the sulfur clouds that are emitted from the mountain and may interfere with civil aviation passing through the area. This is a complete change of perception.

"If we take the capabilities that have already been developed or are currently being developed such as the Texar or Offset3000 which is in the development stage, together with Venus - the super spectral satellite, it is possible to build a constellation that no individual satellite has - for example, for monitoring disasters. Texar can be used to detect changes, the Venus satellite to study what happened there to water, soil or gases; and at offset 3000 to shoot in high resolution.

Such a constellation already exists in the world - for example, the series of DMC satellites that many countries in the world have purchased to monitor their natural resources (Algeria, Nigeria, China, Great Britain), but these satellites are also able to work together as a constellation. There is the Rapid Eye system which includes five satellites, NASA's TRAIN which includes seven satellites, the European GMES which can monitor everything - from glaciers to urban services, and in the design of the RADARSAT consultancy, and of course RIMON which is being developed in the aerospace industry for film narrow communication.

However, according to Chenan, one of the problems is that the constellations convey a lot of information that could be lost. "In the atmospheric industry, we have developed a green position - a simple position that will receive information from all the sensors and will allow the ordinary citizen or the municipal authority to receive standard reports on the subjects of interest to them such as air quality, carbon dioxide concentration, the state of ozone on the ground and almost any data collected from space."

In conclusion, Chen said that Israel has something to offer in the field of satellite constellations: "In the Israeli industry, we have a great many capabilities that can already be used today in the new worldview, also in the field of electro-optics, radar, ground stations, signal processing. We see ourselves integrating into global action in the field and cooperating with other international bodies on the subject."