The future of Air Traffic Control - Space

[Vector4Food]

NavCanada has been onboard with this for months and months now, thought people here would be interested, looks like the FAA is coming on board.

Envision 10 years from now, when every airplane has ADS-B gear, as it will become cheap, small and affordable, the Mode-C will slowly become obsolete, and "radar" level of coverage and separation standards on every square inch of the planet possible.

Think radar separation standards in the middle of the North Atlantic. Or "radar" coverage in the middle of a mountain valley, no more minimum vectoring altitudes, or MEA's. It's good to see the FAA has finally joined the project, this is the future of ANS, and looks like for once North America will be leading the way.

(Ottawa, June 20, 2013) – NAV CANADA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have signed a Declaration of Intent to collaborate on a range of technical and operational issues in support of the development and deployment of space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B).

With the Declaration of Intent, NAV CANADA and the FAA have committed to working together on development of common requirements including the development of policies, standards and operational procedures. Among other things, this will include required navigation performance standards, required communications performance standards, hazard and safety analysis, and international standards and recommended practices.

"We look forward to working together to improve and harmonize the efficiency of our respective air traffic management services to take advantage of the opportunities presented by space-based ADS-B," said Rudy Kellar, NAV CANADA Executive Vice President, Service Delivery. "This is an exciting new direction – one with the promise of significant benefits in safety, fuel savings and reduced GHG emissions for the world’s airlines."

"The FAA and NAV CANADA are global leaders in flight safety and efficiency, and this Declaration of Intent builds on our productive and forward-looking relationship," said Teri Bristol, Deputy Chief Operating Officer – Air Traffic Organization, FAA. "There is significant potential in space-based ADS-B, both in safety and flight efficiency, and we are committed to focusing on the work identified in the Declaration of Intent in conjunction with our NAV CANADA colleagues."

NAV CANADA is the country’s private sector civil air navigation service provider. With operations from coast to coast to coast, NAV CANADA provides air traffic control, flight information, weather briefings, aeronautical information services, airport advisory services and electronic aids to navigation.

Not sure on what our techs will get paid for mileage to go fix the thing when it breaks....

 

[Vector4Food]

Some more info:

Applicability: ALAS is a simple, light weight, low cost peripheral that works with any existing 1090ES, or UAT avionics installation. Normal air-to-ground and air-to-air ADS-B transmissions are not interrupted.
Coverage Area: 100% of CONUS, GOMEX, Caribbean, NAT & NOPAC by 2015 100% of remaining requirements by 2018
Availability: 99.99% by 2014, 99.999% by 2018
Capacity: >3,000 aircraft per spot beam (425sm radius)
Latency: < 200ms from aircraft to ground, < 300ms end-to-end
Update Rate: 1 second
Integrity: 10E-6
Accuracy: Displayed position difference between the RF line-of-sight derived position and the Space Based ALAS derived position for the same target in the same UTC second was less than 50ft 98% of the time.
Scalability: HIGH. The relatively low cost and simplicity of the system architecture makes enhanced coverage, availability and capacity possible with the addition of more satellites and/or ground stations
Deployment: READY ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. The technology has been in flight test since 2010. Globalstar has launched 24 new Second Generation ALAS-capable satellites in the last two years. Essential Services could be deployed by 1Q2015 and Critical Services NLT 2017.
Cost: LOW. Buy-in and reoccurring costs for ANSP´s is minimal since ALAS requires no new satellites, or additional technology in space. It is also designed to interface easily with existing ADS-B ground infrastructure. The price point for Part 121 avionics is less than $40k and installation should be in the 20-25 MH range for most commercial aircraft.

 

[Ozelot]

The FAA has their hand in this? Guess you can add 20 years to the implementation. It does sound awesome though.

 

[ScorpionStinger]

Can you post an official link please....

Thanks

 

[boondr]

Solar Flares should be fun.