Feasibility Study of a Low-cost Search & Rescue Payload onboard the GPS Satellites

Raymond P. Cheung, Shawn Lee and Tuan A. Vo

Abstract:	The US military, law enforcement agencies, and civilian users have urgent needs for a global search and rescue (SAR) system with mobile communications capability. The GPS satellite constellation of 24 satellites is an ideal candidate for implementing such a system. At least four satellites are in-view anywhere, at any time. A communications transponder can be integrated into the future GPS satellite payload to provide global communications capability. A study for implementing a low-cost communications payload onboard the future GPS satellites has shown that it is feasible to allow detecting and locating emergency beacons carried by aircraft, ships, or individual users. Each user equipped with a low-cost GPS receiver will transmit its precise position and identification in emergency situations, or being activated by the control station via the GPS satellites. The system, having the capacity of monitoring up to 30,000 users per 30-minute intervals globally, will significantly enhance the military SAR capability. It may also be employed in future air traffic control to allow pilots in the cockpit and traffic controllers on the ground to monitor aircraft traffic with much more precision than has been ever possible before.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 13th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2000) September 19 - 22, 2000 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	579 - 585
Cite this article:	Cheung, Raymond P., Lee, Shawn, Vo, Tuan A., "Feasibility Study of a Low-cost Search & Rescue Payload onboard the GPS Satellites," Proceedings of the 13th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2000), Salt Lake City, UT, September 2000, pp. 579-585.
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