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The New Millennium Satellite System for the Digital Divide would make available new satellite capacity and low cost user terminals to currently underserved rural populations within the equatorial zone of the planet. This is where the need is the greatest.

The Japan U.S. Science Technology and Space Applications Program (JUSTSAP), the Clarke Institute for Telecommunications and Information (CITI), the Global University System are now examining the feasibility of this innovative new proposal. Many more institutions will be consulted in the coming months. The basic concept is to deploy an innovative low-cost Millennium Satellite System designed to address the educational, informational and health needs of the digital divide.

This proposal is to create and deploy as quickly as possible a new, low-cost satellite system of eight (or possibly more) small satellites. These small satellites in equatorial circular orbit (ECO) or some other suitable orbit such as the Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) would be built using off-the-shelf components.

These satellites would be designed and built using whenever possible qualified graduate students and faculty from universities that have small satellite design and manufacture capabilities. This satellite system would be deployed to provide coverage to the equatorial region where most of the under-served people live. This system would be specifically dedicated to tele-education, tele-health and emergency warning and recovery services. Participants would be asked to sign a written pledge to not use the satellite for other purposes and not to seek to use this system in lieu of commercial telecommunications services.

These satellites would be designed for a five-year lifetime (although they might be able to sustain service for a longer period) and would be able to provide television, multimedia, audio-conference, e-mail and Internet services.

The greatest challenge, however, may well prove to be in making low cost, solar or battery power user terminals available in these regions and finding qualified people in the villages to support the educational and health related programs. For this reason, this project to build and launch these satellites must be viewed as only a test and demonstration activity to show not only what might be done, but to identify the key barriers to full scale implementation.

As soon as funding for this low-cost satellite system and supporting ground-based user terminals is established, a university team of professors and graduate students will be assembled (although in some cases this would be a “virtual collaboration” with work being conducted at several sites). The participants would most likely be drawn from graduate students participating in the JUSTSAP graduate student program, the University of Surrey, and possibly the International Space University. Then the manufacturing and design team would be established at the chosen host university site to begin the design, test and integration of these low-cost satellites. These satellites would be built using off-the-shelf components that would be tested against radiation or other space or launch hazards. Further, because of the radiation hazards and other failure mode possibilities these satellites would be designed with some redundancy and at least two spare satellites would also be provided. It is expected that it will be possible to acquire the user terminals commercially as off-the-shelf equipment, although the choice of the frequency band (such as the 2.5 GHz band for CATV education services to villages) may require a special order.

The satellite design would be based on the SERVIS satellite concept as developed by the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation with suitable modifications being made as needed. The most important of these modifications would be to make these earth-pointing satellites rather than sun-pointing satellites.

As noted above, there would be a parallel effort to work with manufacturers of VSATs in order to develop user terminals that would be less than US$1000 in cost for a village-based terminal. This now looks feasible using transceiver cards which can be put into standard desktop computers and should be commercially available in 2001. In addition, solar cell and battery units would also be sought for villages without electricity so that these could also be made available at low cost as well. Laptop computers or desktops using liquid crystal displays will keep electric power needs low.

The funding support for this project would be sought from the governments of Japan, Canada, the U.S. and Europe as well as other governments, international organizations and private foundations. The most expensive part of this program would be the launch costs for the satellites, but these might be accomplished as “piggy-back” launches in conjunction with heavier payloads. A detailed systems study will be needed to establish the cost of the satellites, the up-linking facilities, the VSAT user terminals and power supplies, and the cost of the launches. Overall this project would be seen as a vanguard effort in the overall campaign to create a large Global Services Trust Fund to support remote and rural tele-education, tele-health and emergency communications services.

The essential points of this proposal are as follows:

This “Digital Divide” satellite for the new millennium would provide essentially free television, audio-conferencing, multi-media, high definition still images, fax, e-mail and other educational and health and emergency warning services for an equatorial service band that ranges from 25 degrees north to 25 degrees south latitude.
The satellite transmissions and the user terminals (except for a modest deposit fee for the ground equipment) would be provided free once an pledge agreement was signed by the participating government or local organizations to affirm that they would use the satellite exclusively for education, health or emergency communications purposes. (There might also be a time limit of one to two years for the free access that might be followed by a period for which some fee would be paid.)
There would be parallel efforts undertaken to create a fund to help support the development of local programming and production of content in local languages so that the satellite could be used to best advantage in the countries where satellite coverage was available.
The program would be designed to accomplish a number of goals. These would include the desire to reduce the cost of the program and the total information delivery program to the lowest possible level. This would be accomplished through the use of volunteers, educational programs, off-the-shelf components and already proven designs. It would also be sought to make the project an educational program by allowing faculty and graduate students to participate actively in the design and building of the satellite, and to make the international participation in the program as large as practically feasible.
Among the largest issues to be faced would be the management and operation of the satellite system, the arrangement for up-linking to these satellites via teleport facilities and the launch of the satellites and the spare facilities.
The frequencies that might be used could be those earmarked for community antenna television and education services in the 2.5 GHz range or some other frequency band that is found to be broadly agreeable. The initial concept for the satellite design derives from the SERVIS satellite design that was developed by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. The details of the VSAT terminals will need to be addressed further after consultation with various VSAT manufacturers around the world. The objective would be to make these terminals very user friendly in terms of their installation and line-up and on-going use and to keep their net cost under $1000 – and under $1800 with solar power and battery units.
This project would be a demonstration project to illustrate the feasibility and viability of the Global Services Trust Fund as sponsored by the Clarke Institute, the Global University System, GLOSAS, and others.

Next Steps

Preliminary coordination has been initiated with several organizations concerning this proposed innovative digital divide satellite for the new millennium. These organizations have indicated serious interest in exploring the feasibility of developing this tele-education and tele-health oriented satellite system and deploying it so as to serve the equatorial region of planet where the unmet needs in education and health are greatest.

This project is thus seen as a tangible and practical first step in the development of the GSTF and needs to be developed in more specific terms in terms of its cost, its technical design, the design of user terminals and other operational and regulatory issues. It is proposed that the University of Surrey (that has designed and built some 50 small satellite systems), the Global University System, the Institute for Applied Space Research at George Washington University, the Communications Research Laboratory of Japan, and the Clarke Institute for Telecommunications and Information as the Principal Investigator jointly undertake this feasibility study. In particular a four-person team with a significant amount of donated effort would complete this investigation in six months time.

Further Background Information

For more information about this project and about the activities of the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Telecommunications and Information (CITI) please go to the following web site address: http://clarkeinstitute.com.

For more information about the Japan U.S. Science Technology and Space Applications Program (JUSTSAP) please contact the JUSTSAP program coordinator James Crisafulli: jcrisafu@dbedt.hawaii.gov.

For more information about the Global University System (GUS) please contact: Dr. Takeshi Utsumi, Vice President of the GUS at: utsumi@columbia.edu.

Jpelton/Pknight 06/02/0