High Altitude Communications Platforms - new Opportunities in Air Space Management Alan C Smith ATN2004 - The ATC Data Link Conference at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London 15th September, 2004 QINETIQ/KI/COM/PUB042030 Noesis Inc.
Airships used to get a bad press. Hindenburg 1937 3
Aerospace Technology Has Evolved 4 Yesterday rr (C) Janes
Lighter Than Air Technology has evolved 5 day Yesterday rr
High Altitude Platforms for New Services 6 Continuous all-weather remote monitoring New platform. New opportunities Up to 5 yrs on-station. 24/7 availability New comms services - relay, broadcast
Contents 7 1 Height, Range & Endurance 2 Payload Capabilities 3 Communications 4 Remote Monitoring 5 Summary
Height, Range, Endurance
Operational Environment 9 22,370 miles 340 miles 50 miles 186,000 ft 36,000 ft 75,000 ft
Area coverage 10 Coverage Diameter vs Elevation Angle 90 75 Elevation Angle (deg) 60 45 30 15 0 Earth Radius = 6,357 k m Alt.= 22 km Alt.= 20 km Alt.= 18 km Alt.= 10 km Alt.= 2 km 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 Coverage Diameter (km)
Typical Monthly Wind Profiles 11 London Equatorial 120000 120000 Altitude (feet) 100000 80000 60000 40000 January March May July September November 100000 80000 60000 40000 20000 20000 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Windspeed (knots) 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Windspeed (knots)
Lighter Than Air HAPs - Future Solutions 12 US/Korea Lockheed Japan ATG (UK)
Fixed Wing HAPs - Future Solutions 13 Helios - 75m wingspan e - 13m wingspan (trials version) Heliplat - 70m wing span Solar powered. Circular cruise path (8km diam x 3km volume @ 99.9%) 4.8M over 3 years
Payload Capabilities
HAP Applications 15
Use of HAPS for Homeland Security 16 Sovereignty
HAPs suggest New Operational Concepts 17 Ultra Long On-Station times 1-5 years depending on latitude platform under customer control Application Comms, Airspace Mgt & Navigation 365/24/7 Remote monitoring (air, land, sea) Linking through satcom and terrestrial infrastructures High Bandwidth delivery Geostationary & relocatable platform At ~ 21km altitude: ~70,000 (km) 2 & ~0.5M (km) 3 coverage.
Platform Characteristics 18 Altitude - 20 km. Location - Diesel/Solar up to 60 o North or South Latitude Life - up to 5 years. Payload - up to 2,000 kg and 25 kw. Position Hold - +/-0.5 km (all 3 axis). Hull Volume - 238,000 cu.m. Length - 200.0 m. Diameter - 48.0 m. Gross Weight - 17,000 kg.
HAP Payload 19 200 meters HACP Payload Module Noesis Inc. Payload: 2 tonnes with 25kW Payload can be mixed: Airspace Mgt + Commercial Comms + Broadcasting + Navigation + Educational + Environmental
Platform Launch 20 Continued expansion finally causes airship to roll to horizontal. Helium expands causing payload module to move off center and to roll airship. Airship is released allowing it to rise similar to a hot air balloon. Hangar roof opened. Weather window is established. 30,000ft 50,000ft 65,000ft Launch
Unique features of HAP 21 Communications -c21 km Tall Tower Remote Sensing - Continuous sensing 24 hrs a day Platform Long endurance (1-5 years) Contained within 1km 3 Above controlled airspace 2 tonne payload 25kW continuous payload power Fly to Location & relocatable (80 knots) Low vulnerability Hook-in-the-Sky
Communications
Communications Opportunities... 23 Land / Sea / Air regional comms Broadcast / Relay / Hub Broadband, Narrowband, Air-to-Air, Air-to-Ground etc 3G; interactive TV:... Secure Comms Architecture (inc narrow & steerable beams) Upgradable payload Backhaul via satcom
24 Platform Control Centre Commercial Comms Services Air Space Management Operations Centre Commercial Infrastructure Other Services Favourable Link budget; very small time delay (cf satcom); reconfigurable payload; shared platform
ATM in UK 25 300km diameter. 10 o elevation. Volume ~0.5million (km) 3
ITU Regions 26 Tropical zones http://www.storm.ca/~iarumsr2/ituregions.html
Frequency bands allocated for HAPs (ref: Karapantazis & Pavlidou) 27 Band Area Services Shared with 47 GHz Global Fixed services (u/ d) 31 GHz 12 Asian countries 27 GHz 12 Asian countries 1.9, 2.0, 2.1 Regions 1, GHz 2, 3 1.9, 2.1 GHz Fixed services (u/ -) Fixed services (-/ d) IMT-2000 Fixed & mobile; fixed satellite (uplink); radio astronomy band neighbouring Fixed & mobile; space science Fixed & mobile; fixed sat service Fixed & mobile services (IMT-2000 and PCS) Region 2 IMT-2000 Fixed & mobile services (IMT-2000 and PCS)
Remote Monitoring
European footprints 29 10 o elevation. ~ 300km diameter footprint.
Remote observation capability 1 30 Single Frame Coverage R Martin, Las Vegas
Remote observation capability 2 31 Single Frame Coverage R Martin, Las Vegas
Summary
Low Cost of Acquisition 33 Low Altitude Airship AT-10 * $3.1 M per vehicle AT-50 (twice lift) * $5.0 M per vehicle Low Altitude Airship (heavy lift) SkyCat 20 est. development $85 M to complete & certify High Altitude Airship est. development $200 M to complete & certify est. in production * $25 M per vehicle per launch * Figure does not include sensors or special configurations. est. in production * $20 M per vehicle
High Altitude Platforms 34 New platform. ~1 (km )3 positional stability at ~21km altitude up to 5 years continuous on-site operations New opportunities. Service package on a 21km tall tower Airspace management; air services Communications, Remote Monitoring of earth resources; air, land, maritime traffic; Voice; TV;... Much civil / govt interest worldwide - the HAP industry is growing Cheap & complimentary to satellite Expectation is that a Stratospheric platform will fly in next few years
QinetiQ
References 1 Lighter than Air Ships - Opportunity for the Aerospace and Aeronautics Communities, Richard J. Martin, 7th annual conf. on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. American Institute of Engineers, Las Vegas, October 23-24, 2003. 36 2 Broadband from heaven, S Karapantazis and F-N Pavlidou. IEE Communications Engineer, April/May, 2004 19-23. Acknowledgements With thanks to: Richard J. Martin, President & CEO, Noesis Inc. USA. Roger Munk, CEO & Technical Director, ATG Ltd. UK. Tim Tozer, Dept of Electronics, University of York, UK. Philip Platt, Airspace Management Dept., QinetiQ for permission to use images from their own presentations. e-mail: acsmith@qinetiq.com