Addvalue Innovation, a Singapore-listed mobile satellite communication company, received the endorsement of its Inter-satellite Data Relay Service (IDRS) from EO-ALERT, a European Union’s Horizon 2020 funded consortium working on a real-time global delivery service for Earth Observation (EO) products.
The EO-ALERT consortium is led by DEIMOS Space of Spain, with participation of the German Space Agency DLR, spacecraft manufacturer OHB Italia, Graz Technical University of Austria, and Politecnico di Torino of Italy.
EO-ALERT primarily aims to define and develop the next-generation EO data and processing chain based on a novel flight segment architecture that moves key optimized EO data processing elements from the ground to space using on-board processing with the objective of providing the EO products to the end user within minutes of collecting the data. Within the frame of EO-ALERT, Addvalue’s IDRS service will deliver the on-board processed products to end users globally and within seconds.
EO-ALERT proposes innovation in several critical technological areas regarding on-board elements of the data and processing chain: on-board image generation and processing for both Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical sensor data, on-board reconfigurable data handling, high-speed on-board avionics, on-board data compression and reconfigurable high data rate communication links to ground. These technological areas cover the EO processing chain from the acquisition of the image up to delivery to a ground station. Such innovations will also provide capabilities for the optimisation of the classical EO data chain towards a data chain with greatly improved data throughput.
A test campaign was done by the EO-ALERT consortium independently to demonstrate and validate the EO-ALERT concept together with modeling of the IDRS link in flight, using a standard Inmarsat Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) terminal (which emulates the Addvalue space transceiver) and bench tests over the Inmarsat satellite. In one of the application scenarios under EO-ALERT, namely ship detection and classification based on a European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) Vessel Detection Service (VDS), Addvalue’s IDRS service enabled end-to-end global delivery in less than one minute.
Dr Colin Chan, Chairman and CEO of Addvalue, commented: “We are delighted to have the open endorsement of IDRS from the EO-ALERT Consortium, and this truly epitomizes the IDRS as a game changer to the way communications are provided for the LEO satellite operators. We are certainly pleased and honored to be the first in the world to be in a position to provide such a proven low latency, on demand and reliable service, and will capitalize on this pole position to reach out to the EO industry in meeting the ever growing demands”.
