1.1.1 Experience of National Space Centre Limited
National Space Centre Limited is an SME and operates from its carrier-grade teleport facility
located at Elfordstown in County Cork, Ireland. The company is active in:
o
the provision of commercial Ground Segment and mission hosting services
o
national and international R&D projects in the areas of Earth Observation and
Integrated Satcoms
o
collaborative initiatives with 3rd Level Education bodies to exploit the space sector in a
range of applications.
Furthermore, NSC interfaces with the wider Irish business, governmental and academic
sectors though its establishment of the Irish Space Cluster, the aim of which is to bring
together, sometimes seemingly disparate, entities whose needs and objectives can be served
by the exploitation of space and satellite technologies.
1.1.1.1
Selected Commercial Operations
1.1.1.2
Ka-Sat Gateway Station
NSC is one part of Eutelsat’s pan-European network of 10 ground stations,
commissioned to deliver hi-speed internet services to the remotest regions of
Europe via their Tooway broadband service. NSC maintains and operates the
RF and baseband equipment and the high volume 10GigEthernet backhaul links
on behalf of Eutelsat.
Demonstrated Expertise:
SATCOMS expertise and domain knowledge; Ground
Segment
Operational
Operations
Service
expertise;
provision;
KPI
Specialist
based
Daily
international
industrial partnering
1.1.1.3
TT&C
NSC hosts and operates one of SES Engineering’s PACORA TT&C Fleet Positioning Control
System stations.
The role of PACORA is to manage the ranging system that maintains the orbital positions and
stability of the SES satellite fleet.
Near constant monitoring enables smaller corrective
actions thereby minimising propellant usage and thus extending space asset mission lifetime.
Demonstrated Expertise:
Service provision to international customers; SLA-based
delivery; Relationships with key SatCom service providers;
In-house expertise for ground segment operations and
terrestrial communications interlinks
1.1.1.4
S-AIS
NSC hosts, operates and maintains a LEO tracking groundstation for exactEarth of Canada.
The station was installed at Eflordtown to facilitate the timely acquisition of S-AIS data,
thereby leading to faster, more frequent updates of exactEarth’s commercial vessel
monitoring services. The data acquired is also utilised in several projects where NSC is
involved.
Demonstrated Expertise:
Service provision to international customers; SLA-based
delivery; Relationships with end customers and key EO
service providers; In-house expertise for EO service chain
development.
1.1.1.5
Selected Projects
1.1.1.6
NG-RMP
The Next Generation Recognised Maritime Picture project is an IAP project under ESA
ESTEC and comprises a consortium of Irish, UK and Luxembourg companies.
The project will deliver a fully operational service that aims to greatly enhance the quality and
accuracy of the recognised maritime picture for the Irish Naval Service. Several space and
terrestrial data sources (not previously combined) are integrated using novel data fusion
techniques to generate the NG-RMP. Within this project, through the application of state of
the art data mining, data analysis and simulations it will be possible to provide for early
identification of unusual / anomlous behaviour of vessels and alerting RMP operators for
planning of future investigation of these vessels by the Irish Naval Service. This project was
the prime motive for the installation of the S-AIS station at Elfordstown and is the first to
receive data feeds from it.
Demonstrated Expertise:
Service provision to State Agencies; SLA-based delivery;
Relationships with end customers, system developers and
key EO service providers; In-house expertise for EO service
chain development.
1.1.1.7
ANISTIAMO
ANISTIAMO – Addressing New Challenges in Satellite Based Maritime Surveillance and
Arctic Monitoring is an EO under ESA/ESRIN - is a multi-thematic Strategic Initiative, led by
Kongsberg Satellite Services in Norway, with participation by organisations in Ireland, Norway
and Finland. ANISTIAMO builds on previous research that focused on satellite derived
information for maritime surveillance, and seeks to continue working with maritime agencies
(e.g. naval organisations, coast guards) that are potential users of satellite-based products
and services. NSC’s roles:
o
Lead on the Atlantic Maritime Thematic area, heading up the Irish consortium
members.
o
Develop and implement EO service chain in Ireland to support near-real time data
acquisition for Atlantic Maritime surveillance services
o
Interface with key Irish user group (Irish Naval Service, Irish Coastguard), as well as
interested stakeholders (UK Royal Navy, Coastguard, French Coastguard).
Demonstrated Expertise:
Thematic Area Lead experience; Service provision to State
Agencies as customers; SLA-based delivery; Relationships
with end customers, industry partners and key EO service
providers; In-house expertise for EO value-added services
1.1.1.8
METSAR
METSAR (Specialist Meteorological Service for Search and Rescue) is a feasibility study into
the introduction of commercial specialised services with a uniform quality for Europe’s Search
and Recue agencies. The METSAR service aims to provide S&R professionals (for the first
time), fully integrated Situational Awareness, Meteo, Oceanographic and reliable long range
communications services to a user community currently operating with a range of standalone
systems and manual processes. NSC contributes a high level of industry expertise to the
METSAR project and is utilising knowledge in the space sector to:
o
define the SATCOMS and Terrestrial communication infrastructure that will serve the
requirements of the METSAR System
o
interpret user requirements to derive a feasible service model that maximises space
data & service utilisation (GNSS, EO, S-AIS, SATCOMS)
o
develop a sustainable commercial service model.
Demonstrated Expertise:
Understanding of specialist-user Needs and Requirements
gathering processes. Expertise in developing Service
Models and System Architectures. Interaction with Eo and
SATCOMS
service
providers.
Understanding
of
commercial aspects and pressures associated with service
development and delivery.