Objectives of the Product

EO and RS applications for collecting an ever-increasing volume of data from images and sensors, or in the event of natural hazards and disasters, have become extremely important for emergencies caused by global warming, pollution, continuous erosion, and destruction of the natural environment.

To monitor real weather or land surface conditions in near real time, national emergency services, private utility companies, governments need high resolution visual imagery.

This results in a huge volume of data requiring broadband for transmission to the receiving earth station gateways.

These wide bandwidths can no longer be provided by traditional X-band even when both polarizations are exploited, and the remedy for this limited bandwidth is to exploit K- or Ka-band.

Most antennas on the market operate in one or two frequency bands at a time, and even Dual-Band antennas that typically operate in the X and S bands have bandwidth and data rate limitations for new services, which can be managed by Banda Ka. The ITZ-TBMA-1.0 represents the development of one of the most advanced products in terms of flexibility of satellite bands on a single antenna (S – X – Ka), data reception capacity and bandwidth for EO – RS – IoT and compactness.

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Customers and their Needs

The target customer who is also a strategic partner for this project is Telespazio. It has shown interest in the product (as have other users) as it is interested in the expected performance of the antenna system with reference to ground stations and more specifically in the expected capacity to fully satisfy the demand for an ever-increasing need for data reception volumes for EO-RS-IoT from satellites. Telespazio was involved in the project by assigning fundamental tasks such as the validation of specifications in accordance with market needs as well as the final verification of the product.

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Targeted customer/users countries

Italy, Finland, and Germany.

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Product description

The project represents the development of a Tri-Band (S-X-Ka) antenna with S-band that supports Rx/Tx mode for TT&C and X and Ka bands in receive mode. The design includes Monopulse tracking techniques for unprecedented precision, which is critical for receiving high-bandwidth data across all frequencies. The Telespazio customer has the task of validating the technical specifications of the product in accordance with market needs and verifying the final product.

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Added Value

The proposed solution brings numerous and substantial advantages as it allows first of all to reduce the number of antennas by concentrating multiple bands in the same antenna, to offer new service scenarios as well as accuracy in satellite tracking and pointing thanks to the use of multiband monopulse satellite tracking and guarantees optimized management of latest generation compact multiband antennas and systems.

Compared to the identified competitors, the proposed solution is more advantageous because it offers a tri-band for antennas up to 13 m (7m, 9m, 11m, 13m). Thanks to the experience gained over the years, we can offer a wide range of equipment such as antennas, feeds, tracking receivers, antenna control units and therefore we are able to offer modular solutions up to a complete solution.

Furthermore, we can adapt our solutions to existing antennas. Unlike large companies that offer standard products, we tailor to customer needs and provide a customized solution

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Current Status

During the first months of activity, thanks to a market analysis, consultation with stakeholders as well as the collaboration with the partner (and first customer) Telespazio, the product requirements were identified and subsequently translated into technical specifications. Based on the specifications, the preliminary design of the RF and the mechanical parts is starting.