NASA Global Hawk Payload High Bandwidth Communications, Command and Control
(Room Innovation Hub-- Booth 2727)
03 May 16
10:00 AM
-
5:30 PM
Tracks:
Air, Commercial, Defense, Research and Development
I have designed the communication subsystems and ground and space based data dissemination systems for more than eight NASA UAVs, starting with the Hawai'i based, solar powered, Pathfinder in the 1990s. The system currently used on the Global Hawk is the result of the natural evolution of these systems. Incorporating SatCom components by L-3 and ViaSat, the Ku system is capable of greater than 200 Mb/s bi-directionally, and is used to, among other things, actively monitor (log on) the sensors, of which there can be a dozen, and reconfigure the sensors. Additionally, the system enables inter-sensor communication aboard the aircraft, in real time, allowing autonomous sensor reconfiguration.