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Concept
European Data Relay System
Summary
The European Data Relay System (EDRS) system is a European constellation of GEO satellites that relay information and data between satellites, spacecraft, UAVs, and ground stations. The first components (a payload and dedicated GEO satellite) were launched in 2016 and 2019.
The designers intend the system to provide almost full-time communication, even with satellites in low Earth orbit that often have reduced visibility from ground stations. It makes on-demand data available to, for example, rescue workers who want near-real-time satellite data of a crisis region.
There are a number of key services that will benefit from this system's infrastructure:
Earth Observation applications in support of time-critical and/or data-intensive services; e.g., change detection, environmental monitoring.
Government and security services that need images from key European space systems such as Global Monitoring for Environment and Security.
Emergency response and crisis intervention applications that need information and data over areas affected by natural or man-made disasters.
Security forces that transmit data to Earth observation satellites, aircraft and unmanned aerial observation vehicles, to reconfigure such systems in real time.
Weather satellite services that require the fast delivery of large quantities of data around the world.
The system has been developed as part of the ARTES 7 programme and is intended to be an independent, European satellite system that reduces time delays in the transmission of large quantities of data. The programme is similar to the American Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System that was set up to support the Space Shuttle—but EDRS is using a new generation Laser Communication Terminal (LCT) which carries data at a much larger bit rate: the laser terminal transmits 1.8 Gbit/s across 45,000 km (the distance of a LEO-GEO link), while the TDRSS provides ground reception rates of 600 Mbit/s in the S-band and 800 Mbit/s in the Ku- and Ka-bands.
Official source
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