Between 2017-18 Nav Canada and Iridium Corporation repurposed existing telecom satellites to create a fully space-based ADS-B system at very low cost. The following quote from a 2017 paper has proved prescient:
“The United States has been a world leader in air navigation for a century. The ground/satellite-based ADS-B technology we developed in the 1990s has become a world standard. But the world is not standing still. A second generation, totally space-based, ADS-B system is being launched as a joint venture by Nav Canada and Iridium Corporation. The system will become operational next year when the full constellation of satellites is in orbit. Recently, the FAA NextGen team validated the performance of those Iridium satellites already in orbit and it left no doubt that the future of air navigation will be space-based ADS-B, with the ground-based ADS-B infrastructure serving as a backup.”
1 reply
Not so fast…
The near future promisses a sky filled with MILLIONS of drones. ADS-B, terrestrial or space-based, is NOT up to handling that volume.
What? Me worry? ADS what? What are you guys talking about? My retirement ride flies lowly and slowly over grassland and flint hills only, tailwheel streaming bluestem. Nary a drone or other airplane out there.
Sorry Larry. Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m all in with the ground based system too, so I don’t look forward to plunking down more money if they decide to “upgrade”. A space-based system sounds great, but it is not without its own problems. One good solar flare and the whole system goes down without warning.
Niiiice.
