Satellite-Based Telemetry Data Relay for Long-Range Aerial Vehicle Monitoring: Challenges, Feasibility, and Future Prospects

Ground telemetry is one of the most critical range instrumentation systems, deployed over a wide geography to best capture flight data for in-flight monitoring, safety analysis, and decision-making. Since land-based ground telemetry systems pose a Line-of-Sight (LoS) limitation, shipborne telemetry stations are deployed in the downrange to provide full coverage for long-range flight tests. Deploying such stations presents numerous challenges, which this paper discusses. This paper proposes a Satellite-Based Telemetry Data Relay (STDR) system, where the radiation from the telemetry antenna on-board is intercepted by a satellite. In this “bend pipe” solution, the data will be downlinked to an appropriate ground station. This system eliminates the need for downrange stations and leverages global satellite coverage along with advanced communication technologies.