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1. Copyright © 2016 Thuraya Telecommunications Company. This document contains Thuraya information which is proprietary and confidential.
Any disclosure, copying, distribution or use is prohibited if not otherwise explicitly agreed with Thuraya in writing.

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Satellite Technology and its use in Sailing
Keith Murray (Maritime Product Manager)
Dubai to Muscat Race

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Thuraya
Who we are.
• Own and operate two
satellites
• Provide voice and data
services
• Reach two thirds of the
earths population
• Based in Dubai and
Sharjah

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What is a Satellite
And what do they do for us.
• A simple question, what is a satellite?
o Here is the answer from NASA (and they should know)
o A satellite is a moon, planet or machine that orbits a planet or star. For example, Earth is
a satellite because it orbits the sun. Likewise, the moon is a satellite because it orbits
Earth. Usually, the word "satellite" refers to a machine that is launched into space and
moves around Earth or another body in space.
• Name some uses for satellites?

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What Satellites do for us in every day life
• Navigation
o GPS
o GLONASS (GLObal NAvigation Satellite System)
o BeiDou
o Galileo
o IRNSS (only covers Indian continent)
• Earth observation
o Environmental monitoring
 Polar Ice caps
 Floods
 Sea temperatures
o Mapping (Google Maps)
o Weather forecasting
• Communication
o Voice and Internet
• Television and radio Broadcasting
• Military
• Space observation
o Hubble telescope
• Scientific
o The International Space Station
• Time keeping
o Banking and stock exchange

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Types of Satellites

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Where are they in Space?

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How they get there?
• Launchers (Rockets)
o Ariena (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5P_8PNKsrE)
o Proton (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqW0LEcTAYg)
o SpaceX (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PHkgSEX11o)
• Risky part of a satellite life.
o In 2015 eighty-six launches and five failures. (5.8% failure rate)
o 2 to 3 years to design new satellite
o 1.5 to 2 years to build the satellite

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UAE Space Sector
Did you know about the mission to MARS?

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Roles
What Does The UAE Space Agency Do?
• Space Mission Management
• Plan and manage missions to Space such as the upcoming Mars
Mission commemorating the UAE 50th Anniversary in 2021.
• Policy, Law and Regulation
• Partnerships
• Strategic partnerships around the world eg. With NASA
• Education and Outreach
• Educating the UAE on space and related sciences and
creating good scientists (lectures, competitions, Space
School etc)

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Competitions
Rocket Design Competition
Launched by
Mohammed bin Rashid
Genes in Space Competition
in conjunction with
Boeing and National
Newspaper
Virtual House on Mars
Competition
UAE Mars Balloon will provide
universities and schools with the
opportunity to participate in a
Stratospheric experiment
opportunity in 2017.

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Satellites that are really useful to sailing
• Navigation (GPS)
• Communication
o Internet and Voice
• Safety
• Tracking
• Weather forecasts

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Navigation
Global Positioning System (US System)
• Three parts to the system
o Earth stations
o Satellites (around about 30 in orbit at any one time)
 24 required to be active to give global coverage.
o Receiver (Your satnav in car or GPS plotter on a boat)

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Navigation
Triangulation
• Triangulation
o The method of finding your
position in 2D for normal map
o Can you find the Aerials
o Can you find the church with a
tower
o Can you find the windmill
N
A B C D E
1
3
4
2

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Navigation
2D Trilateration
• Trilateration
o Another method of finding your
position in 2D for normal map
o This time instead of using the
bearing to the landmarks we
use distance.
o The aerials at are 3km from
you
o The church with a tower is
3.5km from you.
o The windmill is 2.5km from you
X
X
3km
2.5km
3.5km

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Navigation
3D Trilateration
• One satellite
o Position anywhere on the surface of the sphere
• Two satellites
o Position is anywhere on circle that the two
spheres intersect.
• Three satellites
o Position is one of two locations where all three
spheres intersect the location nearest earth is
selected.
• Four satellites
o Required to correct the timing in the receiver

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Navigation
Calculating the distance to the satellite
• Timing onboard the satellites done by very accurate atomic clocks.
• Timing on receiver not very accurate so needs correction from satellites.
o But which one to choose?
• Special code is generated by the satellites
and the receiver.
• All the signals arrive at different times
• Once the timing is corrected then each
satellite tells the receiver how far away it
is due to the time that it takes for the
signal to reach it.
It takes 4 satellites to help work out the timings
GPS 1
GPS 2
GPS 3
GPS 4

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Navigation
Potential Issues that stop you getting a GPS fix
• Large distance moved since last time GPS was switched on.
o Almanac (Basically a list of the positions of all the satellites) has to be updated for the
new location.
 Can take 5 – 10 minutes
• Blockage to GPS antenna so that it can not see four satellites.
• Solar storm (caused by the Sun) can cause black outs
• Problems with the Satellites
o Happened recently (Feb 2016) when US GPS System was disrupted for a 12 hours due to
issue with updating software.

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Communication
• One of the main usages of satellites after GPS in the maritime
environment.
• Two main types voice and data.
• Voice
o Circuit Switched (Like the phone in your house) or VoIP (Skype)
o Key as long range emergency communication device
o General usage.
• Data
o Provides web, email, social media access just like your broadband service at
home.
o Provides information on the weather, piracy and other safety notices, harbor
or marina details.

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Communication
• Hands On Tests
• Three types of equipment
o XT Pro Satellite phone
o Satsleeve makes your smart phone a Satellite phone
o IP+ a broadband satellite terminal with WiFi connection.

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Hands On
Group One and Two
• Group One
o Make a call between the two satellite phones.
o Make a note of anything that you noticed that was different to a normal mobile phone
 Time for the signal to reach the other person.
 Voice quality is as clear as normal phone
 What happens if you point the aerial away from the satellite
• Group Two
o Make a call between satellite phone and mobile phone and then the other way round.
o Make a note of anything that you noticed that was different to a normal mobile phone
 Time for the signal to reach the other person.
 Voice quality is as clear as normal phone
 What happens if you point the aerial away from the satellite

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Hands On
Group 3
• Using the IP+ Thuraya Broadband terminal
• Align the device to the satellite by pointing it using the compass and sprite level
o More info on next slide
• Connect to the Wifi of the device password “Murray12”
• Open web page see how long it takes to load
• Use speed checker app to measure speed.

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Hands On
Satellite Position

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Delay in voice
How the math's you learned in school helps
• Distance to the satellite = 36,615km
o = 36,615,000m
• Speed of light = 3 x 10 m/s
o Which is a 3 with eight zeros after it
o 300,000,000 m/s
• Time for the signal to go to the satellite
• But the signal has to come back to the other phone so delay is 2 x 0.122s = 0.244s
D
S T
Distance
Speed
36,615,000
300,000,000
0.122s
8

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Delay in speech
When using satellite phone to the boats pause
(stop talking for a second or two)
between sentences to allow the other person to reply.

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Safety
• Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS)
o Uses satellite (Inmarsat C) and normal radio VHF and HF
transmissions
o Provides automatic positioning reporting, search and rescue
coordination, Maritime Safety Information broadcasts and
general communication
o Voluntary by recommended on recreational water craft
• Emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB)
o Works by transmitting a coded message on a distress
frequency via Cospas-Sarsat global satellite system and earth
stations to the nearest rescue centre most units have a GPS
receiver to provide your location to the rescue services.

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Tracking
• Satellite Automatic Identification System
(http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:55.3/centery:25.3/zoom:15)
• Race Tracking
• Provides:
• Location
• Speed
• Direction
• Time of update
• Course travelled
• Using the XT-Pro Satphone
• Updates every 15mins

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