The STARSYS Global Positioning and Messaging System

STARSYS is a commercially feasible mobile satellite communications system which employs low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite technology to provide brief two-way messaging and position determination services. STARSYS mobile terminals will be able to send and receive short messages and, through ground computer processing, the system will determine the terminals' location almost anywhere on Earth. These data services will have extensive utility in a number of different applications, such as recovery of stolen property, tracking vehicles and cargoes, remote area positioning and messaging, personal communications, multiple data retrieval, and remote control of systems such as utilities. The market niche for STARSYS-type LEO satellite communications will consist of customers who can effectively employ short, inexpensive data messaging. STARSYS does not, therefore, compete directly with those systems which emphasize voice services. Moreover, with its design emphasis on inexpensive satellites and very low cost terminals, STARSYS will foster the creation of a completely different market of data messaging users, a mass market consisting of millions of commercial users around the globe. Additionally, nearly all of the applications envisioned by STARSYS for its commercial customers have corresponding utility in the government and military marketplaces. The concept of providing satellite messaging and positioning to individual user terminals has been attempted before, but satellite and user terminal costs were too expensive for mass market acceptance, and the services languished. Now, with the continually diminishing cost of sophisticated electronics, and the ability to use low-cost, low-earth orbit satellites, the commercialization of space communications for mass market use is on the threshold of being realized. STARSYS is a leader in the effort to bring two-way space-based data communication and positioning at an affordable cost to people and businesses around the globe. The STARSYS system, our market perspective, and where we stand in implementing our system for low-cost data messaging and positioning by satellite is the subject of this paper.