The Antarctic Broadband Demonstration Nanosatellite: Fast Internet for the Bottom of the Earth

• Main Authors: Bonin, Grant, Zee, Robert, Brett, Michael, King, Jan
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@USU 2011
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2011/all2011/36; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=smallsat

High bandwidth communications is the largest sector of the commercial satellite industry. While micro- and nanosatellites have yet to service this market on a commercial basis, it is expected that such spacecraft will play an increasing role in the communications industry, with initial applications likely to be in niches that cannot be readily or easily addressed by traditional service providers. Antarctica is one such niche. Communication needs in the Antarctic are increasing rapidly, with high growth rates in operational and scientific activities across the continent. Traditional space and terrestrial communication solutions will not be able to meet these needs in the near-future, due to the inherent orbital limitations of geostationary communication satellites and the remoteness and harsh environment of the Antarctic. The Antarctic Broadband program is intended to establish a high-quality communications service for the interna-tional research community in Antarctica. The initial project phase, supported under the Australian Government’s Australian Space Research Program, is intended to define a satellite communications service optimized to meet the current and future data transfer needs of the entire Antarctic community, and to test a number of important technolo-gies which will support the flight of a nanosatellite demonstrator mission and lead to a fully operational system. This paper presents the proposed Antarctic Broadband system, and focuses on the current state of the nanosatellite demonstration mission.