Instead of users (e.g., independent owners/operators of different satellites) having to calculate orbit determination for each satellite themselves, an orbit determination service automatically calculates the orbit determination (OD) based on a user request. The calculated OD can then be used by a satellite ground station service to determine appropriate orientations for a ground station antenna in order to communicate with the satellite. In some embodiments, the OD service uses information from the calculations of ODs for multiple satellites and users to update a model used in the OD calculation, for example, to provide a more accurate model for Earth's atmosphere to be applied in subsequent OD calculations. In some embodiments, the OD service uses a user-provided computer-aided drawing (CAD) file of the satellite to produce or tune models specific to the satellite, for example, to generate more accurate models for solar radiation pressure and ballistic drag.

A soft handover method with gateway site diversity between a first nominal gateway to a relay satellite of a space telecommunication system and a second redundant gateway to the same satellite comprises a soft handover preparation phase, and a soft handover execution phase that are executed in succession. During the execution phase, a first switchover of the traffic at the ground segment level to the second redundant gateway, and a second switchover at the level of the segment on board the satellite between a first nominal access link of the first nominal gateway and a second redundant access link of the second redundant gateway are finely synchronized.

Techniques and mechanisms for enabling the positioning of a communication terminal in or on a vehicle, building or other structure. In an embodiment, the communication terminal includes an electronically steerable antenna which is disposed in a housing. A plurality of support legs, coupled to the housing, are each configured to rotate about a respective first axis, and to further rotate about a respective second axis. For a given support leg, an orientation of the respective second axis varies with rotation of that support leg about the respective first axis. Two such support legs are mechanically coupled to one another with respect to their respective first axis rotations or with respect to their respective second axis rotations. In another embodiment, the communication terminal is operable by a user to selectively enable or disable first axis rotation and/or second axis rotation of a given support leg.

A method for determining operational constraints for a first constellation of non-geostationary satellites transmitting towards a terrestrial station with respect to a second constellation of non-geostationary satellites linked with the station, the constraints comprising a maximum transmission power of the satellites of the first constellation, the method comprising: determining triplets of limit values (θ, ϕ, I/N) of two angles (θ, ϕ) and of an interference-to-noise ratio (I/N), the angles (θ, ϕ) defining a position of a satellite of the first constellation relative to the station and to a satellite of the second constellation and the interference-to-noise ratio being the ratio between interferences transmitted by the first constellation on a link between the station and the satellite of the second constellation and the noise (N) of the link, the determination of the triplets being performed so that a distribution of signal-to-noise and interference ratios (R) aggregated over a time interval is greater than a reference distribution; determining at least the maximum transmission power of at least one satellite of the first constellation from the triplets.

A multi-band signal communications system includes a hub station communicating with multiple remote stations. The system reduces or eliminates the effects of precipitation, airborne pollutants, dust and debris. Signals can comprise digital or analog signals, which can be encrypted. The system can utilize binary digital or quantum computing technologies. The system can utilize frequency-hopping and satellite-hopping routines for security. System components can be fabricated from silicone-based semiconductors and graphene. System functions can be implemented with hardware, firmware and software. The communications system and method can be implemented with fiber-optic cables, laser transmissions and microwave-frequency media.

Communication bottlenecks, particularly in the downlink direction, are a common problem for many CubeSat developers. As described herein, a CubeSat module for a CubeSat comprises an optical transmitter to transmit data to a remote terminal, a receiver to acquire an optical beacon from a remote terminal, and a fine-pointing module operably and directly coupleable to a coarse-pointing module of the CubeSat. The fine-pointing module is configured to point the optical transmitter toward the remote terminal with an accuracy range that overlaps with an accuracy range of the coarse-pointing module of the CubeSat so as to establish a communications link between the CubeSat and the remote terminal over a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) distance.

A satellite system may have a constellation of communications satellites. Satellite terminal equipment may be used to communicate with the satellite constellation. The satellite terminal equipment may have indoor and outdoor equipment that can communicate wirelessly. Power may be conveyed wirelessly between the indoor equipment and the outdoor equipment. The indoor equipment may include communications circuitry for supporting communications with electronic devices. The outdoor equipment may include satellite communications circuitry. The satellite communications circuitry may include antennas, satellite transceiver circuitry, and modems. Wireless communications between the indoor and outdoor equipment may be supported using radio-frequency wireless communications circuits or optical communications circuits.

Method, device and computer readable medium are disclosed for supporting satellite access. The registration management entity of the network determines information regarding which beam covering the location of the terminal device and the corresponding timing; the terminal device triggers a registration update based on the information determined by the registration management entity. Thus, the method, device and computer readable medium can introduce less modification to the network and have good compatibility.

An information processing device calculates a communication available period for communication between a satellite station and an earth station on the basis of orbit information regarding the satellite station and location information regarding the earth station, and section that performs reservation processing for reserving a communication reservation period for the communication between the satellite station and the earth station, among reservation target periods selected from the communication available period.

This system and method provides for a plurality of satellite ground stations, distributed across some geographic region, and for these regions in turn to be scalable to cover large regions or even the globe using a combination of low-orbit satellites, terrestrial participant devices, and cloud-based communications. The invention in its simplest form is intended to solve the short temporal window problem inherent to the scenario where a single base or ground station is trying to track and communicate with a low-end LEOSAT or even a cube-satellite.