ESA’s LLMS (Little LEO Messaging System) payload was launched on its way last week on board a Zenit from Baikonour on Friday. This new telecommunications payload will provide a low-cost, worldwide electronic mail (e-mail) commercial service dubbed IRIS, for
Intercontinental Retrieval of Information via Satellite.
The host satellite, on an inclined polar orbit at 850 km altitude, will
“view” any point on the Earth’s surface at least twice a day and will
collect and distribute e-mail (like a postman with conventional mail).
Remote subscribers will need a relatively inexpensive dedicated small
satellite modem (half the size of a portable PC). Automatic data
collection will also be possible.
The hub station, located in Spitsbergen (at 78( N), will load and
retrieve messages from the satellite once per orbit and interface with
public data networks to connect users via a service centre in Brussels,
Belgium.
The target customers for that service are people travelling in remote
areas or at sea without access to terrestrial communications who need to
exchange a few messages a day at low cost. Large organisations with
staff in remote areas of the world are a typical example.
For ESA this is a small project of a new kind in which special efforts
have been made to reduce development costs and duration and to
capitalize on several years of spread spectrum technology development.
The contractual aspects are also innovative, with delivery in orbit and
a commitment by the prime contractor to offer a commercial service.
Under an ESA ceiling-price turnkey-contract, the prime contractor SAIT
Systems of Brussels, Belgium, undertook not only to develop, but also to
launch and commercially operate LLMS/IRIS for an initial period of 3
years.This concept is in line with the evolution of ESA’s procurement
approach, asking industry to fully assume the programmatic, technical
and financial responsibility for close-to market missions.
Development of this advanced communication payload under the leadership
of SAIT systems, was carried out by European companies of Belgium (SAIT
Devlonics, Alcatel Bell), Germany (OHB), Spain (SEMA), and the UK
(Warberry Communications). IMEC vzw, Barco-Silex and Verhaert D&D, also
of Belgium, were involved at the level of the LLMS modem, while
subcontracts with NPP WNIIEM of Moscow, Russia and with the Norwegian
Space Center covered respectively the payload accommodation with launch
and the hub station installation in Spitsbergen.
