The European Union Space Programme Agency (EUSPA) has signed a framework contract entrusting France’s space agency with providing Galileo search-and-rescue (SAR) services. The 137 million euro 10-year contract includes maintaining assets in operational condition, coordinating with the host sites and interfacing with the Cospas-Sarsat community.
Image: EUSPA
The National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) has been responsible for operations of SAR-Galileo services for the European Union since 2016, providing the SAR-Galileo Forward Link Service and the Return Link Service. The coordination of operations and maintenance of the ground segment, deployed across Europe, is headquartered at the space center in Toulouse, France.
A network of reference beacons enables evaluation of the performance of the systems in real-time. CNES also provides its expertise to EUSPA for the definition of international standards, performance monitoring and future developments.
Emergency position-indicating radio beacon-based services is an addition to the framework contract. CNES has already been identified as the future operator of the Emergency Warning Service, an alert service for European communities scheduled to begin operations in 2024.
As well as providing global navigation services, Europe’s Galileo satellite constellation is contributing to saving more than 2,000 lives annually by relaying SOS messages to first responders. And from now on the satellites will reply to these messages, assuring people in danger that help is on the way.
This ESA-design return link system, unique to Galileo, was declared operational this week, during the 12th European Space Conference in Belgium. The delivery time for the return link acknowledgement messages from initial emergency beacon activation is expected to be a couple of minutes in the majority of cases, up to 30 minutes maximum, depending primarily on the time it takes to detect and locate the alert.
Cospas-Sarsat rescue beacon activated. Its signals are picked up by satellites in orbit, including Galileo. (Photo: GSA)
“Anyone in trouble will now receive solid confirmation, through an indication on their activated beacon, informing them that search and rescue services have been informed of their alert and location,” explains ESA’s Galileo principal search and rescue engineer Igor Stojkovic. “For anyone in a tough situation, such knowledge could make a big difference.”
All but the first two out of 26 Galileo satellites carry a Cospas-Sarsat search and rescue package. At only 8 kg in mass, these life-saving payloads consume just 3 percent of onboard power, with their receive-transmit repeater housed next to the main navigation antenna.
Image: ESA
Founded by Canada, France, Russia and the US in 1979, Cospas-Sarsat began with payloads on low-orbiting satellites, whose rapid orbital motion allows Doppler ranging of distress signals, to pinpoint their location. The drawback is these fly so close to Earth that their field of view is comparatively small.
Geostationary satellites went on to host Cospas-Sarsat payloads. These see much more of the planet, but because they are motionless relative to Earth’s surface, Doppler ranging is not possible.
Medium-orbiting satellites such as Galileo – orbiting at 23 222 km altitude – offer the best of both worlds, providing a wide ground view by multiple satellites combined with time-of-arrival and Doppler ranging techniques to localise SOS signals. This improves the maximum signal detection time from four hours to less than five minutes, down to one or two kilometres (within a formal specification of 5 km within 10 minutes).
Galileo’s Search and Rescue service is Europe’s contribution to Cospas-Sarsat, operated by the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency, GSA, and designed and developed at ESA. As the overall Galileo system architect and design authority, ESA has been responsible for the interface between the core Galileo infrastructure to the Return Link Service Provider facility, procured by the European Commission and operated by French space agency CNES.
The Cospas-Sarsat satellite repeaters are supplemented by a trio of ground stations at the corners of Europe, known as Medium-Earth Orbit Local User Terminals (MEOLUTs), based in Norway’s Spitsbergen Islands, Cyprus and Spain’s Canary Islands and coordinated from a control centre in Toulouse, France. This trio is soon to become a quartet, with a fourth station on France’s La Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean under development.
The satellites relay distress messages to these MEOLUTs, which then relay them to local search and rescue authorities.
A public demonstration of Galileo’s return link service was performed at the Cospas-Sarsat Joint Committee Meeting in Doha in Qatar in summer 2019. ()Photo: ESA)
The service’s return link message capability was developed as an inherent part of the Galileo system. The messages are relayed to the individual beacons that sent the original distress call by being embedded within Galileo signals broadcast from satellites in their view.
“The switching on of the return link service was enabled by a thorough test campaign carried out by ESA, with the support of the GSA and CNES,” adds Igor. “We needed to be sure the service remains reliable even with multiple distress calls being replied to at once.”
A key milestone was a public demonstration of the return link service, performed at the Cospas-Sarsat Joint Committee Meeting in Doha in Qatar last summer.
“The return link is a joint service of Cospas-Sarsat and Galileo and therefore agreement by Cospas-Sarsat was crucial,” adds Igor.
“This acceptance was achieved through long discussions led by the European Commission at the Cospas-Sarsat Council last November, supported by plentiful documentation of simulations and test results provided by ESA and CNES.”
Orolia Maritime has revealed the FastFind ReturnLink PLB with Return Link System (RLS) life-saving beacon system.
Orolia worked closely with the European GNSS Agency (GSA) on the Galileo satellite system since the company was selected to lead development of next-generation search-and-rescue (SAR) distress beacons. Earlier this year, Orolia introduced the first Galileo-enabled personal locator beacons (PLBs).
Building upon this, the new FastFind ReturnLink transmits the user’s unique ID and GNSS location via the global network of Cospas-Sarsat search-and-rescue satellites, and then uses Galileo’s Return Link Service to transmit a return signal back to the user’s device to confirm the alert has been received and location has been detected.
The PLB displays a blue light to inform the user that search-and-rescue professionals are aware of their situation and location and that they are not alone.
“We are dedicated to producing SAR products that keep people safe on land and sea, and the FastFind ReturnLink PLB is Orolia Maritime’s most advanced search and rescue beacon to date,” said Chris Loizou, vice president of Maritime at Orolia. “The psychological impact of knowing that help is on the way cannot be underestimated, and this PLB will provide invaluable peace of mind for those in distress.”
The FastFind ReturnLink PLB uses the latest SAR technology, packed into a simple, rugged and lightweight palm-sized unit. Features include:
Multi-constellation GNSS — both Galileo and GPS receivers.
Belt-attachable buoyancy pouch and life-jacket oral tube clip attachments.
No subscription.
Five-year battery life.
Waterproof to 10 meters.
SOS Morse LED flashing light and RLS Reassurance blue flashing light.
Safe-stow antenna and three-stage activation.
Galileo’s RLS is expected to be fully operational in January 2020.
Orolia’s Kannad Ultima-S emergency locator uses the Galileo Return Link Service. (Photo: Orolia)
Orolia is introducing a new product for commercial aircraft safety, the Kannad Ultima-S emergency locator transmitter (ELT).
The Kannad Ultima-S is designed to be installed in the cabin of commercial aircraft or in its life raft. It is capable of notifying the crew about the launch of a search-and-rescue operation via Galileo Return Link Service (RLS).
For passengers, installation of the Kannad Ultima-S means their flight can located accurately, with rescue following if an aircraft evacuation is needed.
Orolia’s Kannad Ultima-S ELT was developed under a two-year contract through the European GNSS Agency’s Tauceti Project. Orolia says this is the first beacon to use the Galileo RLS.
Other key features include:
Certified to the new lithium battery regulations to avoid the risk of battery fires.
A multi-GNSS receiver to accept multiple signals such as GPS and Galileo to detect the aircraft’s
location faster and deploy rescue teams sooner than before.
Dual activation modes: manually or automatically upon contact with water.
An RLS option to notify the crew that the distress signal has been received and help is on the way (available on Galileo).
Multiple configurations available to install in aircraft cabins and life rafts. With a rugged, compact, and easy-to-install form factor, both versions can be installed through a carry-off bag or a mounting bracket and require little storage room.
Orolia’s Kannad Ultima-S meets new and evolving EASA/FAA requirements related to ELTs and non-rechargeable lithium batteries documented under the RTCA DO-227A standard.
“Orolia is dedicated to making air travel even safer than it is today with resilient positioning and aircraft location technology, featuring automatic, manual and remote activation modes to provide a complete ELT portfolio,” said Christian Belleux, Aviation Product Line director at Orolia. “We are excited to present aircraft operators with an affordable, reliable and state-of-the-art ELT solution for cabin modifications or linefit installations.”
The new ELT benefits from the proven Cospas Sarsat infrastructure, which is being upgraded to provide highly accurate location data and nearly real-time reporting to search-and-rescue operators through global coverage.
Kannad Ultima-S survival distress beacons complement Orolia’s Ultima family of next-generation ELTs, following the company announcement of the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS)-compliant fixed Ultima-DT. Orolia provides aircraft manufacturers and operators with a complete solution for every ELT application.
Orolia will exhibit at the Paris Air Show June 17-20, Hall 2B booth E32, where both new ELTs will be displayed for the first time.
