Data Management and Satellite Relay for Environmental Research Aircraft

Long duration flights and human safety motivate the use of remotely piloted aircraft for many environmental research and surveillance activities. Remote-sensing applications require a complete system for real-time operations, in-flight data acquisition, storage and telemetry, and ground-based evaluation of instrument data. Long range measurement strategies further require over-the-horizon communications from aircraft to ground station, facilitated by a satellite link. Technologies to fulfill most of these requirements have been developed recently by MRC and others for the DOE ARM-UAV program. However, some significant technical issues remain, which we propose to address here, leveraging existing capabilities where possible. We describe an existing flexible telemetry system and necessary design modifications to meet all pertinent requirements, including payload weight, size and power constraints for a Cessna 357. We propose to evaluate the utility of existing Inmarsat-2 and future Inmarsat-3 satellite communica- tions systems, including lightweight terminals (with at least 2.4 kbaud data rate) and potential antenna modifications. We propose to adapt data management capabilities to selectively telemeter operations and sensor data. We propose to design a complete prototype system for satellite-link telemetry and innovative in-flight and ground-based data management and analyses, including integration and test plans for a Phase II prototype demonstration.