OneWeb has announced that it is using drones from Danish startup QuadSat to accelerate ground segment tests as it aims to bring part of its low Earth orbit broadband constellation online this year.
In an initial stage, QuadSAT has carried out an antenna validation campaign at the Telespazio teleport in Scanzano, Italy.
The Danish company carried out in-situ measurement generating antenna radiation patterns and aligned the pointing of the antennas using their drone payload.
During the campaign, QuadSAT measured radiation patterns of several OneWeb antennas, enabling the validation of feed alignment and the direction of pointing. This is the first time OneWeb has utilised the capabilities of drone-based antenna diagnostics. Following successful results from this initial phase, QuadSAT will be performing antenna verification at other OneWeb sites.
Joseph Paciaroni, Director of Gateway Deployment, OneWeb said: “We are in the process of building the ground segment for our state-of-the-art constellation. Having innovative methods for diagnostics will be an important success factor and we are particularly excited about the potential of drone-based in-situ diagnostics where traditional antenna validation techniques are not available. During this initial phase, we were really impressed with both the quality of the data and the ability to carry out the test within a very short time frame.”
Joakim Espeland, CEO of QuadSAT, added: “We are glad to be able to provide OneWeb with our measurement services for on-site validation and optimization. A fully optimised ground station is essential for OneWeb to assure the best possible service to its customers. It is therefore essential that a validation of the ground segment is carried out on-site. This is one of the services we provide at QuadSAT.”
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