PAKISTAN’S INTEGRATED DYNAMICS REVEALS PSEUDO-SATELLITE PROJECT

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December 18, 2019

The SOLARIS HAPS. Photo Source: Integrated Dynamics
Daily News
Dec 16, 2019Bilal Khan -
PAKISTAN’S INTEGRATED DYNAMICS REVEALS PSEUDO-SATELLITE PROJECT
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Integrated Dynamics, a privately-owned company in Pakistan, revealed that it was developing its own line of High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) platforms in the form of solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) at the 2019 Dubai Air Show, which took place in 17-21 November.

Integrated Dynamics’ first HAPS UAV, which is listed in the company’s product portfolio, carries the name SOLARIS. The SOLARIS offers an operational range of 200 km at line-of-sight (LOS), which is extendable to over 1,000 km, and can operate at an altitude of 6-10 km (i.e., 19,500+ ft to 32,800+ ft).

Marketed as a low-cost civilian UAV, which will reportedly cost under $100,000, the SOLARIS has a mass of 13 kg and can operate in the air for up to 24 hours. Integrated Dynamics is now working on increasing the SOLARIS’ endurance to up to four days, but it is not known when this version will be available.

Integrated Dynamics is also working on the STRATOS, a larger design that will be capable of operating at up to 22 km (72,000+ ft) and reportedly stay in the air at up to four months at a time, which could make it at-par with some industry-leading designs. The STRATOS is to carry a payload of up to 12 kg,

Notes & Comments:

The core idea of HAPS is to offer a low-cost alternative to satellites in certain applications, most notably as a high-altitude communications repeater and surveillance asset.

Some of the leading HAPS designs in development around the world rely on solar energy to keep the UAV airborne, though it is unclear if that capacity extends to the drone’s onboard equipment.

One of the earliest known HAPS UAV designs was the Zephyr, which is currently development with Airbus Defence and Space (Airbus DS). Originally, the Zephyr was project of QinetiQ, which then sold the Zephyr to Airbus DS in March 2013. It is believed that the UK Ministry of Defence will use the Zephyr as part of its intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition (ISTAR) capacity.

It is unclear if the SOLARIS and/or STRATOS programs are borne from a specifically defined defence and/or government requirement. However, if Integrated Dynamics developed the program independently, it can be proof of the Pakistani private sector’s capacity to undertake product design and development if given the regulatory and technical infrastructure to do so.

https://quwa.org/2019/12/16/pakista...Vhe1owsKG6B86_Qtxt2-zaTyZQjNGP3VNVLhmJrqXrBmg

 

[Rajput_Pakistani]

Could it be used to relay television/radio/internet broadcast to Indian Occupied Kashmir?
Let say one such system could receive communication from 10-20 mobile devices in Kashmir?
Is it possible?

 

[TNT]

Could it be used to relay television/radio/internet broadcast to Indian Occupied Kashmir?
Let say one such system could receive communication from 10-20 mobile devices in Kashmir?
Is it possible?

One way communication or broadcast is easy and can even be done by ground based antennas and baloons. The problem is with two way communication, that requires devices powerful than a cell phone to upload.

 

[Rafeh]

Technically we can insert it close to border as base station for nearby mobile communications (e.g. wireless access points or relays nodes).

But Since aircraft is moving, this base station will deal with very complex "time varying" complicated 3D propagation environment which would require very complex signal processing (and mathematical modeling).

Even with static base station (i.e. fixed on the ground) , due to things such as multi path scattering and noise etc, the signal is time varying. But when aircraft itself is moving, then the signals varies much more from time to time and its nature is very complex to model.

Therefore 3-Dimensional (3D) trajectory design to achieve robust communications at all times is complex itself for a uav in such case.

For example When the UAV’s altitude is higher, the UAV base station can provide a higher coverage, but the data rate will reduce because it will suffer a higher pathloss.

Since the aircraft is moving, the trajectory design for non-rotary (i.e. the one unable to hover) UAV would be complex to optimally achieve the trade-off between the coverage and the data rate due to added complexity of time varying nature of the communication set up.

These and other problems means that for Kashmir the answer is NO. For few mobile phones its not worth it.

But how about data siphoning from indian communications behind enemy lines or using Kashmiri mujahideen, the answer is yes. A small but capable UAV in the hands of Kashmiri freedom fighters can provide us a good deal of signals intelligence.

The details are too technical and I would rather not discuss the details on an open forum.