Iridium satellite constellation — BrandWiki

Iridium satellite constellation

Overview

Iridium

manufacturer	Motorola (original constellation), Thales Alenia Space (NEXT constellation)
country	United States
bus	LM-700 (original), EliteBus1000 (NEXT)
applications	communications
orbits	Low Earth orbit
operator	Iridium Communications
status	In service
built	98 (original), 81 (NEXT)
launched

The Iridium satellite constellation provides L band voice and data information coverage to satellite phones, satellite messenger communication devices and integrated transceivers. Iridium Communications owns and operates the constellation, additionally selling equipment and access to its services. It was conceived by Bary Bertiger, Raymond J. Leopold and Ken Peterson in late 1987 (in 1988 protected by patents Motorola filed in their names) and then developed by Motorola on a fixed-price contract from July 29, 1993, to November 1, 1998, when the system became operational and commercially available.

The constellation consists of 66 active satellites in orbit, required for global coverage, and additional spare satellites to serve in case of failure. Satellites are placed in low Earth orbit at a height of approximately 781 km and inclination of 86.4°. The nearly polar orbit and communication between satellites via Ka band inter-satellite links provide global service availability (including both poles, oceans and airways), regardless of the position of ground stations and gateways.

In 1999, The New York Times quoted a wireless market analyst, regarding people having "one number that they could carry with them anywhere" as "expensive... There never was a viable market."[3]

Overview

The Iridium system was designed to be accessed by small handheld phones, the size of a cell phone. While "the weight of a typical cell phone in the early 1990s was 10.5 ounces"[5] (300 grams) Advertising Age wrote in mid 1999 that "when its phone debuted, weighing 1 lb and costing $3,000, it was viewed as both unwieldly and expensive."[6]

An omnidirectional antenna was intended to be small enough to be mounted on the planned phone, but the low handset battery power was insufficient for contact with a satellite in geostationary orbit, 35785 km above the Earth; the normal orbit of communications satellites, in which the satellite appears stationary in the sky. In order for a handheld phone to communicate with them, the Iridium satellites are closer to the Earth, in low Earth orbit, about 781 km above the surface. With an orbital period of about 100 minutes a satellite can only be in view of a phone for about 7 minutes, so the call is automatically "handed off" to another satellite when one passes beyond the local horizon. This requires a large number of satellites, carefully spaced out in polar orbits (see animated image of coverage) to ensure that at least one satellite is continually in view from every point on the Earth's surface. At least 66 satellites are required, in 6 polar orbits containing 11 satellites each, for seamless coverage.

Orbit

Orbital velocity of the satellites is approximately 27,000 km/h. Satellites communicate with neighboring satellites via Ka band inter-satellite links. Each satellite can have four inter-satellite links: one each to neighbors fore and aft in the same orbital plane, and one each to satellites in neighboring planes to either side. The satellites orbit from pole to same pole with an orbital period of roughly 100 minutes.[7] This design means that there is excellent satellite visibility and service coverage especially at the North and South poles. The over-the-pole orbital design produces "seams" where satellites in counter-rotating planes next to one another are traveling in opposite directions. Cross-seam inter-satellite link hand-offs would have to happen very rapidly and cope with large Doppler shifts; therefore, Iridium supports inter-satellite links only between satellites orbiting in the same direction. The constellation of 66 active satellites has six orbital planes spaced 30° apart, with 11 satellites in each plane (not counting spares). The original concept was to have 77 satellites, which is where the name Iridium came from; the element iridium has the atomic number 77, and the satellites evoked the Bohr model image of electrons orbiting around the Earth as its nucleus. This reduced set of six planes is sufficient to cover the entire Earth surface at every moment.

History

The Iridium satellite constellation was conceived in the early 1990s as a way to reach high Earth latitudes with reliable satellite communication services.[8] Early calculations showed that 77 satellites would be needed, hence the name Iridium, after the metal with atomic number 77. It turned out that just 66 were required to complete the blanket coverage of the planet with communication services.[8]

First generation

The first-generation constellation was developed by Iridium SSC, and financed by Motorola. The satellites were deployed in 1997–2002. All the satellites needed to be in orbit before commercial service could begin.

Iridium SSC employed a globally diverse fleet of rockets to get their 77 satellites into orbit, including launch vehicles (LVs) from the United States, Russia, and China. 60 were launched to orbit on twelve Delta II rocket carrying five satellites each; 21 on three Proton-K/DM2 rocket with seven each, two on one Rokot/Briz-KM rocket carrying two; and 12 on six Long March 2C/SD rocket carrying two each. The total setup cost for the first-generation fleet was approximately US$5 billion.[9]

The first test telephone call was made over the network in 1998, and full global coverage was complete by 2002. However, although the system met its technical requirements, it was not a success in the market. Poor reception from inside buildings, bulky and expensive handsets, and competition with the conventional cellular phone contributed to its failure.[10] Insufficient market demand existed for the product at the price points on offer from Iridium as set by its parent company Motorola. The company failed to earn revenue sufficient to service the debt associated with building out the constellation and Iridium went bankrupt, one of the largest bankruptcies in US history at the time.[9][8]

The constellation continued operation following the bankruptcy of the original Iridium corporation. A new entity emerged to operate the satellites and developed a different product placement and pricing strategy, offering communication services to a niche market of customers who required reliable services of this type in areas of the planet not covered by traditional geosynchronous orbit communication satellite services. Users include journalists, explorers, and military units.[8]

No new satellites were launched 2002–2017 to replenish the constellation, even though the original satellites based on the LM-700A model had been projected to have a design life of only 8 years.[9]

Second generation

The second-generation Iridium-NEXT satellites began to be deployed into the existing constellation in January 2017. Iridium Communications, the successor company to Iridium SSC, has ordered a total of 81 new satellites being built by Thales Alenia Space and Orbital ATK: 66 operational units, nine on-orbit spares, and six ground spares.[9]

In August 2008, Iridium selected two companies — Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia Space — to participate in the final phase of the procurement of the next-generation satellite constellation.

As of 2009, the original plan had been to begin launching new satellites in 2014.[11]

The design was complete by 2010, and Iridium stated that the existing constellation of satellites would remain operational until Iridium NEXT is fully operational, with many satellites expected to remain in service until the 2020s, while the NEXT satellites would have improved bandwidth.

Original Iridium constellation

The satellites each contained seven Motorola/Freescale PowerPC 603E processors running at roughly 200 MHz,[18] connected by a custom backplane network. One processor was dedicated to each cross-link antenna ("HVARC"), and two processors ("SVARC"s) were dedicated to satellite control, one being a spare. Late in the project an extra processor ("SAC") was added to perform resource management and phone call processing.

The cellular look down antenna had 48 spot beams arranged as 16 beams in three sectors.[19] The four inter-satellite cross links on each satellite operated at 10 Mbit/s. Optical links could have supported a much greater bandwidth and a more aggressive growth path, but microwave cross links were chosen because their bandwidth was more than sufficient for the desired system. Nevertheless, a parallel optical cross link option was carried through a critical design review, and ended when the microwave cross links were shown to support the size, weight and power requirements allocated within the individual satellite's budget. Iridium Satellite LLC stated that their second generation satellites would also use microwave, not optical, inter-satellite communications links. Iridium's cross-links are unique in the satellite telephone industry as other providers do not relay data between satellites; Globalstar and Inmarsat both use a transponder without cross-links.

The original design as envisioned in the 1960s was that of a completely static "dumb satellite" with a set of control messages and time-triggers for an entire orbit that would be uploaded as the satellite passed over the poles. It was found that this design did not have enough bandwidth in the space-based backhaul to upload each satellite quickly and reliably over the poles. Moreover, fixed, static scheduling would have left more than 90% of the satellite links idle at all times. Therefore, the design was scrapped in favour of a design that performed dynamic control of routing and channel selection late in the project, resulting in a one-year delay in system delivery.

Each satellite can support up to 1,100 concurrent phone calls at 2,400 bit/s[20] and weighs about 680 kg.[21] The Iridium System presently operates within a dedicated band segment from 1,618.725 to 1,626.5 MHz and shares with Globalstar a band segment from 1,617.775 to 1,618.725 MHz.[22] These segments are part of the wider L band, adjacent to the Radio Astronomy Service (RAS) band segment from 1,610.6 to 1,613.8 MHz.

The configuration of the Satellite concept was designated as Triangular Fixed, 80 Inch Main Mission Antenna, Light-weight (TF80L). The packaging design of the spacecraft was managed by Lockheed Bus Spacecraft team; it was the first commercial satellite bus designed at the Sunnyvale Space Systems Division in California. The TF80L configuration was considered a non-conventional, innovative approach to developing a satellite design that could be assembled and tested in five days. The TF80L design configuration was also instrumental in simultaneously solving fundamental design problems involving optimization of the communications payload thermal environment and RF main mission antenna performance, while achieving the highest payload fairing packaging for each of the three main launch vehicle providers.

The first spacecraft mock-up of this design was built in the garage workshop in Santa Clara, California for the Bus PDR/CDR as a proof-of-concept model. This first prototype paved the way for the design and construction of the first engineering models. This design was the basis of the largest constellation of satellites deployed in low Earth orbit. After ten years of successful on-orbit performance, the Iridium team celebrated the equivalent of 1,000 cumulative years of on-orbit performance in 2008. One of the engineering Iridium satellite models was placed on permanent exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Launch campaign

95 of the 99 built satellites were launched between 1997 and 2002. Four satellites were kept on the ground as spares.

The 95 satellites were launched over twenty-two missions (nine missions in 1997, ten in 1998, one in 1999 and two in 2002). One extra mission on Chang Zheng was a payload test and did not carry any actual satellites.

Iridium satellite number changed over time following failure and replacement.

In-orbit spares

Spare satellites are usually held in a 666 km storage orbit.[23] These can be boosted to the correct altitude and put into service in case of a satellite failure. After the Iridium company emerged from bankruptcy the new owners decided to launch seven new spares, which would have ensured two spare satellites were available in each plane. As of 2009, not every plane had a spare satellite; however, the satellites can be moved to a different plane if required. A move can take several weeks and consumes fuel which will shorten the satellite's expected service life.

Significant orbital inclination changes are normally very fuel-intensive, but orbital perturbation analysis aids the process. The Earth's equatorial bulge causes the orbital right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN) to precess at a rate that depends mainly on the

Next-generation constellation

In 2017, Iridium began launching[25][26][27][28] Iridium NEXT, a second-generation worldwide network of telecommunications satellites, consisting of 66 active satellites, with another nine in-orbit spares and six on-ground spares. These satellites incorporate features such as data transmission that were not emphasized in the original design. The next-generation terminals and service became commercially available in 2018.[29] One of the Iridium NEXT services is Iridium Certus, a globally available satellite broadband, which is capable of up to 704 kbit/s of bandwidth across maritime, aviation, land mobile, government, and IoT applications.[30]

The NEXT satellites incorporate a secondary payload for Aireon,[31] a space-qualified ADS-B data receiver for use by air traffic control and, via FlightAware, by airlines.[32] A tertiary payload on 58 satellites is a marine AIS ship-tracker receiver for Canadian company ExactEarth Ltd.[33]

In January 2020, the Iridium constellation was certified for use in the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS). The certification ended a monopoly on the provision of maritime distress services that had previously been held by Inmarsat since the system became operational in 1999.[34]

Iridium NEXT also provides data link to other satellites in space, enabling command and control of other space assets regardless of the position of ground stations and gateways.[35]

Launch campaign

In June 2010, Iridium signed the largest commercial rocket-launch deal ever at that time, a US$492 million contract with SpaceX to launch 70 Iridium NEXT satellites on seven Falcon 9 rockets from 2015 to 2017 via a SpaceX leased launch facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base.[36] The final two satellites were originally slated to be orbited by a single launch[37] of an ISC Kosmotras Dnepr.[38] Technical issues and consequential demands from Iridium's insurance delayed the launch of the first pair of Iridium NEXT satellites until April 2016.[39]

Iridium NEXT launch plans originally

Technical details

Air interface

Communication between satellites and handsets is done using a TDMA and FDMA based system using L-band spectrum between 1,616 and 1,626.5 MHz.[19] Iridium exclusively controls 7.775 MHz of this and shares a further 0.95 MHz. In 1999, Iridium agreed to timeshare a portion of spectrum, allowing radio astronomers to observe hydroxyl emissions. in 2010, the amount of shared spectrum was reduced from 2.625 MHz.[59][60]

External "hockey puck" type antennas used with Iridium handheld phones, data modems and SBD terminals are usually defined as 3 dB gain, 50 ohms impedance with RHCP (right hand circular polarization) and 1.5:1 VSWR.[61] As Iridium antennas function at frequencies very close to those of GPS, a single antenna may be utilized through a pass-through for both Iridium and GPS reception.

The type of modulation used is normally DE-QPSK, although DE-BPSK is used on the uplink (mobile to satellite) for acquisition and synchronization.[62] Each time slot is 8.28 milliseconds long and sits in a 90 milliseconds frame. Within each FDMA channel there are four TDMA time slots in each direction.[63] The TDMA frame starts off with a 20.32 milliseconds period used for simplex messaging to devices such as pagers and to alert Iridium phones of an incoming call, followed by the four upstream slots and four downstream slots. This technique is known as time-division multiplexing. Small guard periods are used between time slots. Regardless of the modulation method being used, communication between mobile units and satellites is performed at 25 kilobaud.

Channels are spaced at 41.666 kHz and each channel occupies a bandwidth of 31.5 kHz; this allows space for Doppler shifts.[64]

Handoff

The Iridium system uses three different handoff types. As a satellite travels over the ground location, calls are handed to adjacent spot-beams; this occurs approximately every fifty seconds. A satellite only stays in view for seven minutes at the equator.[65] When the satellite disappears from view, an attempt is made to hand the call to another satellite. If no other satellite is in view, the connection is dropped. This may occur when the signal from either satellite is blocked by an obstacle. When successful, the inter-satellite handoff may be noticeable by a quarter-second interruption.[63]

The satellites are also able to transfer mobile units to different channels and time slots within the same spot beam.

Ground stations

Iridium routes phone calls through space. In addition to communicating with the satellite phones in its footprint, each satellite in the constellation also maintains contact with two to four adjacent satellites, and routes data between them, to effectively create a large mesh network. There are several ground stations which link to the network through the satellites visible to them. The space-based backhaul routes outgoing phone call packets through space to one of the ground station downlinks ("feeder links"). Iridium ground stations interconnect the satellite network with land-based fixed or wireless infrastructures worldwide to improve availability.[66] Station-to-station calls from one satellite phone to another can be routed directly through space without going through a ground station. As satellites leave the area of a ground station, the routing tables are updated and packets headed for the ground station are forwarded to the next satellite just coming into view of the ground station. Communication between satellites and ground stations is at 20 and 30 GHz.[67]

Gateways are located in

The pre-bankruptcy corporate incarnation of Iridium built eleven gateways, most of which have since been closed.[71]

Adoption of standard-based solutions for cellphones

In 2024, Iridium introduced Project Stardust, a 3GPP standard-based satellite-to-cellphone service focusing on messaging, emergency communications and IoT for devices like cars, smartphones, tablets and related consumer applications. The solution will be supported using a version of the NB-IoT standard for 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN). Scheduled for launch in 2026, it won't replace the company's proprietary solution for voice and high-speed data; instead it will co-exist with that offering on the Iridium's existing global low-earth orbit satellite network.[72][73]