eScan

Status

Ongoing
Status date

2019-01-17
Activity Code

6B.052

Objectives

The project objectives are focused in developing a novel ground station concept combining gateway and TT&C services based on an advanced electronic scanning multibeam antenna product (eScan) able to track simultaneously several Ka-Band satellites of LEO and MEO satellite megaconstellations.

The product solves and incoming satellite mega-constellations system inefficiency/problem- the need for a large number of different motorised- based reflectors farm to track many non-GEO satellites from a certain teleport site- in a very innovative way.

Challenges

The main challenges of the project are technical and arise from the combination of the high demanding requirements in terms of:

High Bandwidth
Large Scanning range
High Gain
Large number of beams

They impose several design decisions in order to maintain the product complexity at a manageable level while providing high performances based on the state of the art of several key technologies.

Benefits

The eScan antenna represents a new paradigm for the Satellite Ground Stations, and evolves completely the way they are designed, produced, implemented, tested and operated, with many benefits of all types associated:

Economic benefits; savings both in OPEX and CAPEX associated to ground infrastructure, operations and maintenance.
Installation simplification; instead of a large network of ground stations, just a eScan on the top of the control room dome.
Maintenance; lack of mechanical motion eliminates the possibility of mechanical breakdown guiding to less repairing works, failure events, …
For the environment. The substitution of extended farms of many motorised reflectors by a single electronic antenna without moving parts implies less installation surface, less noise, less power consumption, and is ecologically wise.

Features

The main features of eScan are:

Modular system: Reliability and Graceful degradation.
Flexibility for antenna upgrades.
Multifunctional antenna able to support multiple functions and services.
Electronic beam and beam agility.
Multibeam: single antenna coping with several satellites
Lighter systems and Less power consumption compared to mechanical antenna-based systems.
No moving parts: Lower long-term maintenance cost than its mechanical counterpart.
Easy maintenance and coordination with operations

System Architecture

The architecture of the product is based on the following building blocks:

Tx and Rx Active Array Antennas; separate antennas for TX and RX are envisaged, because the 20/30 GHz bands are too distant to allow a single antenna.
Clock and ref. signals distribution
Digital Processing
M&C subsystem, and the auxiliary subsystems; electrical, structural, etc.·

And the following external interfaces:

Space to ground interface in what concern to Ka-band gateway and TTC.
TTC and user segment MODEMs interface
Control Centre interface which for contact plan reception and health and service monitoring information reporting

Plan

The overall development logic of the project considers the following phases:

Definition Phase. The required trade-offs and analysis are performed in order to define the preliminary product concept, technical solutions and product requirements.
Key Elements Breadboading devoted to the eScan antenna full prototype design and critical technologies breadboarding
Basic Module Prototype, basic building block for the construction of the antenna based on its repetition.
Large Scale Prototype Integration and Validation. It is a representative model of the product with the relevant functionalities able to be validated in a relevant environment.
Product Phase. During this phase, the final industrial version of the product is developed.

Current status

Project is at the beginning of the Definition Phase. On-going activities include the initial analysis and trade-offs to be reviewed in the Mid Term Analysis Review (DP-AR) milestone.

Initial efforts have been put on:

Identification of ways to reduce the antenna complexity while maintaining a high level of performance,
Basic structures to be used as antenna building blocks.
Identification of technology partners.