training and cybersecurity division, they’re keen to
TRANSCRIPT
www.satellite-evolution.com | November/December 202020
Andre Jones, Vice President,Antenna Solutions for Kratos’Space, Training and CybersecurityDivision
Q&
ASeizing exciting newadvantagesKratos develops and fields transformative, affordable technology,platforms, and systems for the communications market. Followingtheir recent acquisition of ASC Signal in the middle of 2020, Kratoshas seized a number of exciting new advantages, which, accordingto Andre Jones, Vice President, Antenna Solutions for Kratos’ Space,Training and Cybersecurity Division, they’re keen to capitalise uponto complement an already impressive service offering.
Laurence Russell, News and SocialEditor, Satellite Evolution Group
Q&A Kratos
3.5m Ka-band LEO MEO Gateway on X_YPedestal. Photo courtesy of Kratos
Question: How has the acquisition ofASC Signal enhanced Kratos’antenna offerings to the market?Andre Jones: We’ve been veryimpressed with the new arrangement.This acquisition has allowed us tointegrate our resources, line up ourantenna expertise and combine ourcapabilities into a powerful portfolioacross the ground segment. Oursolutions span a range of areas fromCommand and Control (C2), Telemetry,
Tracking & Command(TT&C), RF management,signal processing to networkmanagement.
Question: There’s a lot ofgrowth occurring with LEOsatellites - Ho w does theground segment handlethis expansion from anantenna perspective?Andre Jones: LEO satellitesare much closer to the Earththan GEO spacecraftplatforms, which means thatthe visibility of the Earth bythe satellites is inherentlylimited. That’s why you needa lot more antennas withgreater mobility to be able toconnect with these satellites.
We’ve been a leader inthe market for LEO systems,so we’re quite familiar withthis compounding demandfor more gateways andground infrastructure in orderto cater to LEO connectivity.
We’ve recently delivered almost 200antennas to one prominent player in thismarket.
Recently we’ve also been involvedin many other arrangements andtenders, which has given us a verypositive outlook on the overall market.
Question: Do LEO constell-ations create additional complexitiesfor antenna installation andmaintenance?Andre Jones: LEO satell itetechnologies have their own uniquechallenges; one big one is that they’rein motion at constant, considerablespeeds. Since they are closer to theEarth, they move faster than GEOsatellites relative to a given location onthe ground.
So, it’s important to provide robustantenna positioners which can trackaccurately. One technology we’ve beenmaking use of to do that is Conscan,an algorithm which allows an antennato effectively follow a satell iteautomatically.
There is also the complexity ofmanaging networks of antennas.Sometimes a gateway will have as fewas six, or as many as fifteen antennas,all of which are positioned differentlydepending on where they’re installedand what their role is for the mission.To coordinate and optimize all thathardware takes a lot of planning toefficiently utilize the resources at agiven location.
Making these systems operate as ahomogenous network is a big part ofthe work we perform at Kratos to ensureseamless and efficient operations forcustomers. The way ground systems
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Q&A Kratos
3.5m Ka-band LEO MEO Gateway on X_Y Pedestal. Photo courtesy Kratos
need to be adapted to LEO satellites isa huge part of that effort, because theconsiderations we make all have adomino effect on everything else.
Question: There is a lot of excitementabout the potential f or flatpanel antennas (FPAs) to ad dresssome of the c hallenges associatedwith LEO satellites. What is y ourperspective on this topic?Andre Jones: Almost every webinarthat I’ve attended over the last year hasa familiar segment around electronicallysteered or flat panel antennas. Flatpanels are quite ideal for LEO purposesbecause they’re multi-beam antennaswith a lot of reach, capable of jugglingmore than one satellite at a given time.
Unfortunately, I think we’re stillseveral years away from widespreadflat-panel adoption, not in a functionalrespect, but an economic one. We needto see a flat panel design at the rightprice-point to fit into the financial modelsof the operators. The technology isdependent on a profitable businesscase.
GEO broadband systems installedat the customer premise use terminalsthat cost less than US$300; that’sincluding cables, amplifiers, andmodems. In contrast, flat panels that areenvisioned for the future, especially forLEO broadband systems, couldpotentially cost thousands of dollars. Atthat costly price point, it’s difficult toimagine how operators are going to find
any kind of sustainability in theirbusiness models.
In my opinion, flat panel andelectronically steered antennas willneed to get to a price point in the lowhundreds of dollars for a big wave ofadoption to begin.
Question: What unique advantagesdo your antennas pr ovide for LEOsatellites?Andre Jones: With LEO, tracking isextremely important. If your tracking isn’ton point, then you’re not getting the bestsignal, so you could be dealing with aconnection with more errors, ultimatelymissing out on the full potential of yourinvestment. Accuracy is hugelyimportant here, which Kratos is able toprovide through our trackingtechnologies such as Conscan.
It’s also noteworthy that Kratos hasunprecedented experience in deliveringrobust antennas. There’s probably noother manufacturer that has deliveredas many LEO antennas forcommunications gateways as we havetoday.
We make use of X-Y positioners,three-axis mounts, and othertechnologies to accommodate everyimaginable satellite pass, includingoverhead passes.
Question: What applications haveyour customer base used y ourantennas for in response to LEO?Andre Jones: I would say the two mainapplications are traffic gateways andTT&Cs. The traffic gateways provide theconduit to the Internet, while thesatellites are the direct interface toconsumers. Telemetry Tracking andCommand antennas are mainly used forensuring that satellites can receivecommands from the ground and sendtelemetry data back to the ground.
Question: How heavily has antennadevelopment leaned to wardssupporting LEO constellations?Andre Jones: As I mentioned, LEOrequires a lot more antennas. Thatmeans the design stage has prioritisedrapid manufacturing and deploymentwith a lot of uncomplicated, universalprocesses since we anticipate higherspeed rollouts.
We’ve had a lot of success with thatdue to the designs of our antennas thatsimplify the deployment process. This
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Q&A Kratos
has helped cut down on the amount oftime ground systems need to install newinfrastructure, while reducing the levelof expertise required.
Question: How do you see antennasevolving in the future to suppor tthe innovations occurring insatellites?Andre Jones: Looking at the future, Ibelieve parabolic satcom antennas willalways be around. They’ve been aroundfor over fifty years, starting off very large
and getting rapidly smaller in time withthe tech trend of miniaturization.
That said, I think the future will haveless of an antenna emphasis and moreof a focus on the total ground solution,which will need increasingly robustinfrastructure to deal with the growingcomplexity of satellite constellations.The antennas perform their job nicely,but I see the bottleneck eventuallyshifting to ground station managementtechnologies. Kratos has been workingvery hard to perfect the idea of complete
simplified ground solution packages, asopposed to providing just constituenthardware and software parts.
With so many innovations inantennas, it will come to a point in thefuture where people aren’t worriedabout their l imitations anymore.People’s focus will turn to the simplicityand efficiency of the total groundsolution. Kratos is on the forefront ofnew technologies that we believe willset the standard for the satellite gatewayof the future.
Photo courtesy of Kratos