Commercial aviation platform for Earth observation applications

The present invention intends to provide a flexible and versatile system and method obtaining data relating to a certain geographical area, which is easier to implement and more flexible to operate than current satellite based systems.

For this purpose, it is proposed to use commercial aviation planes as platforms to carry Smallsats-like payloads as they are well suited to host such payloads, providing stable environment and power supply. In fact, payloads of the order of 10- 20Kg mass would be perfectly compatible for installation on planes.

A key question to be addressed is the coverage that can be offered by commercial planes as platforms.

There is a dense network of commercial aircraft flying over land and seas, in particular over Europe, USA and SE Asia. On a typical day, there are about 30.000 flights across European airspace.

For the typical on route altitude of commercial planes, the coverage below the plane results in a circle of about 450Km diameter. A plane flying over Brussels could ‘cover’ all Belgium, while a plane flying over Utrecht would cover all the Netherlands.

Taking into account the frequency and large number of flights and routes, in particular over continental and transoceanic routes, commercial aviation may provide the basis for a wide range of applications.

• No launch costs and no dependency on the launch availability.

• Simpler payloads and less harsh environment as compared to space.

• Longer lifetime and maintenance possibility expected to reduce both CAPEX and OPEX costs.

• No debris issues as the system does not use space orbits.

This invention could be used for optical or radio-frequency operations relating to earth surface data collection applications on a predetermined geographical area, such as for example for forest fire detection. Other commercial applications may also be envisaged.