HAPS

High-Altitude “Pseudo-Satellite”

- Solar Cell Glider -

Picture taken from http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21614095-cheap-alternative-satellites-starting-take-west-wind-blows

Chan Chee Huei (Caleb) - A0110243

Jeremy Loke - A0098545

Chin Chee Fei - A0031131

Huang Junjie - A0133835

High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS)

• High-Altitude Platform (HAP)

– Balloons, Airships and UAS

– Located in Stratosphere

• Wireless communication alternative

• Combines benefits of terrestrial and satellite communication systems

• Easily deployable and easy to maintain

• Get more coverage in specific areas

• Low cost

http://www.slideshare.net/amirgilan/haps-by-amir-gilan

Googlehttp://www.the4cast.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/project-loon-in-pictures-12.jpg

http://i0.wp.com/www.defensemedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Titan-Solara-UAV1.jpg?fit=720%2C9999

http://elektronek.webnode.cz/news/making-of-solara-50/

http://elektronek.webnode.cz/news/making-of-solara-50/

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/multimedia/imagegallery/Pathfinder-Plus/ED07-0015-2_prt.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Helios

http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/July2000/3781.htm

http://www.suasnews.com/2014/04/29601/airbus-defence-and-space-launches-high-altitude-pseudo-satellite-zephyr-8-programme/

http://theatlasgroup.biz/zephyr-7-high-altitude-pseudo-satellite/http://www.defenseworld.net/news/10969/Airbus_Zephyr_7_UAV_Completes_11_Day_Non_Stop_Flight#.VDydtr6p3ww

http://www.gizmag.com/zephyr-uav-civil-test-flight/34010/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YexuoQvqBPI

Source: http://www.solarimpulse.com/en/our-adventure/building-a-solar-airplane/

HAPS

• Indefinite flight– To fly nonstop and remain in the air for extended period without landing

• Energy efficiency is critical– Energy reserves must increase during flight in the day when sun is available

– Storage in the batteries

• Best compromise between lightness, flexibility and efficiency– Solar cells are mounted on the wings, fuselage and horizontal tailplane

• Carbon fibre and honeycomb sandwich– Strong and flexible material required to encapsulate the solar cells

Source : https://www.etri.re.kr/etri_2012/eng/images/res/res03020502_img04.jpg accessed 1-Nov-2014

Present – Convergence of terrestrial and satellite communication systems

Sat-HAPS link

Inter-HAPS link

Multimedia, Mobile broadband, Integrated, Telecommunication Services

http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/9006.pdf

Future - Communication Scenarios

International Telecommunications Union (ITU) assigns

Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BFWA) services for HAPs

• 2 bands of mm-wave frequencies– 47-48 GHz (worldwide)

– 28-31 GHz (40 countries including Russia and most of Asia)

Source: http://www.port.ac.uk/research/telecoms/researchareas/satellitecommunications/highaltitudeplatformnetworks/

Communication Scenarios

• Terrestrial-HAPS-Satellite Scenario

Sat-HAPS link

Sat-HAPS link

HAPS-Ter link

Terrestrial suburban areas Terrestrial urban areas

A. Mohammed [2010]

Inter-HAPS link

HAPS-Ter link

Terrestrial urban areasTerrestrial suburban areas

A. Mohammed [2010]

Sat-HAPS link

Remote area

A. Mohammed [2010]

• A stand-alone HAPS Scenario

• Terrestrial-HAPS Scenario

Characteristics

http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/9006.pdf

Project Loon-Equipment Used

Project Loon – How it works

Solara 50

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http://cdn4.thetechjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/solar-powered-drone-solara-50.jpg

HAPS – Google Loon vs Solara 50

Source: Internet for All : Stratospheric solutions by Google Loon and Facebook Drone, Northwestern University

Solara 50

Glider

HAPS – Google Loon

• New Zealand Trial

– coverage area of 1250 km2

– Cost USD 1.8 million

Internet for All : Stratospheric solutions by Google Loon and Facebook Drone, Northwestern University

Google Map

HAPS – Solara 50

• Coverage area 28.9km radius (2625 km2)

• Costs USD 2 million

Google Map

http://cdn4.thetechjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/solar-powered-drone-solara-50.jpg

Cost Analysis

• Making a LEO satellite that can track and monitor hurricanes cost $290 mil

• Single satellite launch can range in cost from $50 mill to $400 mil.

• An rough estimate of USD 500mil to make and put satellite to use

• HAPS -> USD 2 mil (250 times cheaper!)

• Exclude many other cost such as training and maintenance, etc as well as risk factors

http://www.globalcomsatphone.com/hughesnet/satellite/costs.html

Cost Analysis

• Coverage equivalent– 1 Sat : 100 HAPS

• Cost ratio– 200 Sat : 2 HAPS

in mils

• HAPS requiring lower tech manufacturing equipment than Satellite (e.g. NAND->LED)

• Facilities, Maintenance, Mission, Risk, Operation

• Characteristics– Law enforcement surveillance– Unmanned (8 men crew) and operated at BS– Up to 600m altitude (up to 4.6km)– 200m coverage (up to 400m)– 24hr operations– Typical cost USD 0.5mil depending on system

equipped– SGD 30 mil ops saving per year! (USD 23.5 mil)

Similar Platform – Tethered Aerostat Radar System

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/lift-balloon-radar-watch-over-singapore-20141028

Source: Cost: ftp://dns.soest.hawaii.edu/bhowe/outgoing/20120216_CIMES_Alameda/SERMA-1.pdf

Coverage

http://www.whoishostingthis.com/blog/2013/12/06/internet-infographic/

http://www.whoishostingthis.com/blog/2013/12/06/internet-infographic/

http://www.fastcolabs.com/3027663/all-about-google-loons-low-cost-space-based-competitor-outernet

Application (I) - Pseudo Satellite

• Provide alternative coverage withhigh speed broad-band access even inremote areas (e.g. Brazil, India) andenhance quality of wirelesscommunications in denselyinfrastructure cities fromcommunication barriers.

• Provide supplementary coverageduring times of reduced GPSavailability

• Provide better position accuracy

Application (II) – Real Time Imagery

• Providing real time imaging during natural disaster and provide emergency respond when lives are at stake.

• Real time imagery could also allow a more accurate weather forecast such as forecasting the arrival of hurricane.

• Provide backup communications relay if terrestrial communications assets such as cell towers, microwave relays and satellite downlinks are damaged.

• Incident awareness and assessment

Picture Source: http://eiast.ae/en/page/satellite-pictures

Application (III) – Security• Border/Marine time- Provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in coastal or

ocean regions against suspicious activity and identify threats to enableeffective countermeasures.

- Identify transport of illegal goods in massive coastline- Dedicated communications support to other UAVs Global positioning

systems (GPS) services

• Military- Provide surveillance against terrorists’ threats to the country- On offensive side, enemy intelligence, precision targeting, counter-IED,

etc.- Provide intra-unit communications and locations infoE.g. The U.S. Army’s combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, respectively,showed that the forces lacked adequate intra-unit communications, particularly at lowerechelons, and that the use of satellite communications resources offered a future solution. Thepromise of satellites was borne out by the success of Blue Force Tracker, a communicationssystem used to track the locations of units and vehicles connected to low-orbitcommunications satellites. Lewis J. [2005]

Application (IV) – Others• Support other technology and applications- Large scale autonomous vehicles- Effective air/land shipping tracker- Research

• Tele and Broadband Communications- Better Internet and mobile network quality and coverage (4G, 5G,

LTE etc)- Wireless broadband for commercial flights- Personalized coverage in a designated area- The NASA Pathfinder/Plus can provide 1000x the fixed broadband

communication capacity using the same frequency bands- Satellite television programs

• Complementary tool to Satellites- Inter-working scenario to provide high quality Multimedia

Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) on an overlappedterrestrial-HAP-satellite coverage

- Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) communication relay

Economic Opportunity (I)

http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/disaster-statistics

http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/disaster-statistics

• The opportunity is measured by the count of disasters, not including man-made disaster (e.g. border conflicts, terrorist)

• The motivation from the loss of lives that could be salvage with better communication and tracking devices

Economic Opportunity (II)

• Mobile internet, IoT, Cloud storage, autonomous vehicle - GPS

• Suggest that communication speed, availability and quality are vital to meet the various forecasted demand

Economic Opportunity (III)

• Take O & G for example. Due to the constraints of laying lines across ocean to remote oil rig, O&G entities depends heavily on satellites. Cheaper pseudo-satellite that can be deployed easily is definitely a bargain to help oil rigs at remote areas gain access to communication and improve safety respond network.

Components of Solar cell glider

• Indefinite availability and power source– Solar cell

– Weather proof

• Electric drive train and communications – Electric power storage

– Integrated Chips

• Construction material– Lightweight

– Stronghttp://www.freesunpower.com/overview.php

Solar panel

Charger controller

Battery

Power inverter

• The best modern productionsilicon cell efficiency is 24% atthe cell level as reported bySunPower in March of, 2012

• The rest of the sun’s energyare lost as heat and otherenergies

• Crystalline silicon dominatesthe solar market in 2013

• Thin film is cheaper but lesseffective. To achieve the sametotal power output ascrystalline silicon, it requires35% more space

Source: http://solarcellcentral.com/limits_page.html

Silicon Solar Cells

Cost of Silicon Solar Electricity

• The 2013 average price was $0.74• The cost of silicon solar electricity

decreases rapidly over the yearsdue to:

1. Increase in supply2. Increasing efficiency of solar cells3. Improvements in manufacturing

technology4. Economies of scale5. Intense competition for major

contracts

Source: http://solarcellcentral.com/cost_page.html

Replacing Silicon with Graphene

• Graphene is the strongest materialever discovered and extremely light(0.77 mg/m2)

• Transparent and Good opticalproperty with wide absorptionspectrum

• Good electrical conductivity• Solar cells efficiency increased from

8.6% in 2012 to 15.6% in 2014, andpotentially can increase further inthe next few years

• Potentially cheaper cost than siliconin the next few years onwards.(Graph)

Sources:http://www.gizmag.com/graphene-solar-cell-record-efficiency/30466/http://www.graphenea.com/pages/graphene-price#.VDQb8hapT8t

• About 70 percent of the world’s lithium comes from brine (salt lakes); the remainder is derived from hard rock

• The supply is ample and concerns of global shortages are speculative

Abundance of Lithium batteries• The increase in

lithium usage for battery application over the years provide cheap cost of material the choice of lithium polymer

http://retirefunds.blogspot.sg/2010_10_01_archive.html

Reduced cell cost suggests the upcoming era of large capacity cells

•As thin digital devices continue to lead the trend, cylindrical and polymer cells may bring the once promising large-capacity cells back into the market. It is expected that starting from 2013, the average size of cell modules will be significantly reduced;•Due to its large capacity, polymer cell price has dropped rapidly. Small-capacity cells are therefore being less applied in the market, and polymer cells have acquired a larger market share than cylindrical cells.•Large-capacity cell price continues to fall due to increased production•As for Large-capacity cells, most of the production line has amortized, so the average price is very competitive; it is expected that the use of large-capacity cells (such as 2.8Ah and 3.0Ah) will continue to increase and accelerate the price decline of large-capacity cells.

Source:http://www.energytrend.com/price/20130506-5180.html

Wireless Network (III)

Source: “Opportunities for Next Generation Aircraft Enabled by Revolutionary Materials”,Charlie Harris, the director of the Research and Technology Directorate at NASA's Langley Research Center, slide 16

Material - Composite

Conclusion

• HAPS or Solar cell gliders offer a wide range of entrepreneur applications

• There are several ‘push’ factors to deploy solar cell gliders based on the potential applications

• The rate of improvement of the components discussed could increase the market share of solar cell gliders in future at lower cost

• It is not a disruptive but merely a complimentary technology to existing communication network

References

• A. Mohammed and Z. Yang, “Wireless Communications from High Altitude Platforms: Applications, Deployment and Development” in Communication Technology (ICCT), 12th IEEE International Conference, 2010, p1476 – 1479.

• McKinsey Global Institute, “Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy”, May 2013, p12.

• Lewis J., Geoffrey S. S., Isaac R.P. III, “High-altitude airships for the future force army”, RAND, 2005, p1.

• Thanh T. N. D., “Improving performance of wireless communication systems using adaptive space-time scheme”, International Symposium on Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Oct 2007

• Tom Mendina, Johannes J. Britz, Information Ethics in the Electronic Age, Current Issues in Africa and the World , 2004, p 26.

• http://www.gizmag.com/zephyr-uav-civil-test-flight/34010/, assessed on 21 Oct 2014

• http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21614095-cheap-alternative-satellites-starting-take-west-wind-blows, assessed on 21 Oct 2014

Q&A