NTS - A Nanosatellite Space Trial

Paper number

IAC-08.B4.4.A8

Author

Mr. Elliott Coleshill, COM DEV Ltd., Canada

Coauthor

Dr. Jeff Cain, COM DEV Ltd., Canada

Coauthor

Dr. Franz Newland, COM DEV Ltd., Canada

Coauthor

Dr. Ian DSouza, COM DEV Ltd., Canada

Year

2008

Abstract

The COM DEV Mission Development Group has recently launched a nanosatellite mission called NTS (Nanosatellite Tracking of Ships). NTS is a space trial which is intended to provide proof-of-concept validation for a COM DEV AIS (Automatic Identification System) radio that has been specifically designed to receive AIS transmissions from low earth orbit. The AIS system uses the VHF frequency band and provides detailed information about each equipped vessel. Not only does the system provide information to determine the location of a vessel, but it also provides heading, engine status and other crucial information. Designed for terrestrial use, the system traditionally has a range of only 100 km and uses a local self-organised time-division multiplexing scheme to ensure transmissions from all ships in any self-organised cell do not collide. Receiving the signals from a space platform represents an opportunity to provide wide area coverage.
 
The NTS program was designed to be a low cost, rapid method of risk mitigation to assist in the development of a constellation of spacecraft that would provide operational capability to receive AIS from Space (AIS-S). The scope of the program was kept to a minimum with the focus on the design and development of a new demonstration payload. The nanosatellite bus was developed from a combination of pre-existing designs from the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies/Space Flight Laboratory (UTIAS/SFL). The resulting bus design was a combination of the CanX-2 and Generic Nanosatellite Bus. The NTS spacecraft will be able to provide the capability for detecting AIS signals from low earth orbit with short AIS signal collection cycles over its planned mission lifetime. Detection of AIS signals from space will provide a new capability to track and monitor large maritime vessels even when there are large distances from traditional shore based detection systems. 

The paper presents an overview of the NTS spacecraft, mission concept and the preliminary results obtained from the flight. 

Abstract document

IAC-08.B4.4.A8.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-08.B4.4.A8.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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