The Road to National Harbor

by Martin Jarrold

London, U.K., July 5, 2021--The latest webinar in the GVF-SEG series posed a very important question – Antenna Innovations: Keeping Up with the Rest of the Industry?  It is based on a very important premise – that the transformation of the commercial exploitation of space and rapid progression from “Space 2.0” to “Space 3.0” (exemplified in such innovations as re-usable and 3-D printed launchers, assembly line satellite manufacturing, terabit-per-second satellite networks) can only be fully realized if comparable innovations occur with antennas.

Antenna innovations in performance, cost, and operation may perhaps be less attention-grabbing than the sight of launch vehicle stages softly landing after yet further successful orbiting of multiple satellites, but are no less transformative.  Electronically Steered Antennas (ESAs) are just one example of the increased capacity, and even greater future potential, of the satellite terminal to provide more, better, and increasingly vital communications links.

In the webinar discussion, moderated by Jeremy Rose of COMSYS and featuring panelists representing some of the leading voices in the antenna world – Kymeta, INSTER, AvL Technologies, and ANYWAVES – the objective was to inform a global audience as to whether, or not, the antenna industry is keeping pace with other segments of the satellite communications industry.

Discussion began with a request made to one of the panelists to explain the notion of the “disadvantaged antenna”, seemingly a rather novel term – related to the challenges of the technological drive towards small ESAs – requiring significant clarification.  That clarification was fascinating, prompting an energized following dialog which additionally included something of an exposition as to why the ‘world’ of the parabolic antenna is so different to the ‘world’ of the ESA.

Later questions covered differences in the performance and price requirements of high-end ESAs versus those of consumer units; requirements for antennas communicating with NGSO satellite constellations; panelists’ perspectives on the headline-grabbing Starlink antenna; and, what the panelists would like to request of satellite operators to help with more effective and efficient antenna certification    processes.  This was an illuminating dialog, so take some time if you can and visit the GVF web page https://gvf.org/webinar/antenna-innovations-keeping-up-with-the-rest-of-the-industry/ and watch the video.

The various technologies being develped in the ‘world’ of ESAs are indeed a feature of, and vital contributory driver of, “Space 3.0”, or the NewSpace revolution.  While the ongoing development of those technologies is a principal foundation on which the future of satcoms is principally dependent, those technologies remain expensive to engineer, making current unit cost of manufacture too high to secure mass market interest and penetration.  Of course, the market for ESA technology is not entirely closed as some companies are selling actual product, albeit on a limited scale.  Whilst this situation should change as more of the numerous actual and projected NGSO constellations are orbited, reductions in unit prices will not change the fact that ESAs are highly complex high-tech devices.

While there is not a single ESA technology (and different manufacturers make great claims for their own ‘state-of-the-art’ technology), all ESAs – in order to ensure precise satellite pointing in the most demanding of circumstances where the antenna/ESIM platform is moving and the target satellite is also moving in its LEO or MEO orbit and the target satellite must continually change as one spacecraft hands-off to another – have to be able to make thousands of tiny, individually tuned elements work together as one, unified antenna.  This process must operate for long periods of time, covering extreme temperature ranges, with power to actively control high-demand phase shifter components and amplifiers.  However, having noted this broad definition, other technological approaches to how satellites are tracked, how the beam is pointed, and how quickly the beam can be moved to another satellite are available!

The NewSpace revolution is a multi-faceted one and can be analyzed from any one, or combination, of several angles.  At SATELLITE 2021 (https://gvf.org/event/satellite-2021/), taking place over 7-10 September at the Gaylord National Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland, GVF will be hosting various panel discussions, one of which, Reducing Ground Infrastructure Costs in the New Space Supply-Chain, will address how NewSpace is challenging established business models whilst creating new supply chains and allowing entrepreneurs to provide services from space in a more affordable way than before.  However, required investments in ground systems and infrastructure remain the biggest roadblock in the NewSpace supply chain.  So this discussion will tackle such questions as: “Could ground infrastructure be replaced by an integrated service?”  This session will explore the scope of such a service, the benefits it could deliver to customers, investors, and the supply chain, by reducing required investments in time, money, and training.

In moving towards a ‘world’ of ESAs, we won’t be leaving behind the ‘world’ of the parabolic antenna, at least, in my view, not for some time, and initiatives to make the current parabolic ‘world’ more efficient and cost-effective are still an important contribution to commercial space.  Indeed, some of these initiatives may be considered themselves to be both a part of NewSpace, and additionally to have a contributory role in the beyond-parabolic future.

Referencing the aforementioned point made by the panelists during Antenna Innovations: Keeping Up with the Rest of the Industry? that they would like to request of satellite operators moves to help facilitate smother and faster antenna certification processes, there is, of course, SOMAP – the Satellite Operator Minimum Antenna Performance specifications – an initiative that was previously undertaken to improve the Quality of Service (QoS) worldwide for the industry and to minimize satellite interference, and which exist alongside the GVF’s Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) terminal type-approvals procedures.

The GVF MRA Working Group (GVF MRA-WG) has developed a consensus-based framework to improve the efficiency of satellite operators’ terminals type-approval procedures.  Using this framework, once a type-approval is provided to an antenna manufacturer by any one of the participating satellite operators, other operators may mutually recognize the results of the tests conducted during the first operator’s type-approval process, so that tests are not repeated unnecessarily.  To achieve this objective, the MRA-WG created a procedure which defines a set of standard tests that an antenna or earth station manufacturer should perform in order to apply for type approval from any satellite operator.  Use of this procedure not only improves the quality and completeness of test data but helps reduce the time and cost required to bring new ground-segment technology to the market.

The GVF MRA-WG works closely with the SOMAP group – AsiaSat, Eutelsat, Inmarsat, Intelsat, and SES – collaborating to produce updated guidance to antenna manufacturers regarding the satellite operators’ expectations for new antenna products and how to demonstrate compliance with the SOMAP specifications.  

GVF, through the MRA-WG (and also with the SOMAP group), has over the years worked closely with the European Space Agency (ESA) under the ARTES – Advanced Research in Telecommunicatons Systems – program on a number of antenna-related projects.  The most recent of these applied the MRA terminal type-approval procedures to the context of a novel approach to conducting on-site antenna verification – using Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones, a technology developed by QuadSAT, a GVF member based out of Denmark.

GVF successfully supported QuadSAT on the delivery on a joint project ARTES contract – Unmanned Aerial System for Antenna Performance Evaluation (UAS-APE) – to develop and validate the technology which has been acknowledged by the satellite operators as a valuable alternative to traditional methods of testing.  Use of a transportable airborne platform avoids the need to ship the test antenna to a remote location such as an outdoor far-field antenna range compact range/near-field test facility.  The SOMAP requirements were used to compare performance data acquired by drone measurements with comparable test data acquired from a traditional far field outdoor test range.

Future columns here will keep the industry fully up-to-speed as to how the delivery to market of this technology progresses.  Until then, wherever you are whilst reading these words… Keep well, stay safe.   

Martin Jarrold is Vice-President of International Program Development of GVF. He can be reached at: martin.jarold@gvf.org