ORCA creates cross-industry value:

• Airliners will be able to extract unexploited value from their existing infrastructure

• Constellation developers/users benefit from the new ‘platform’ through decreased cost, as it solves the costly launch issue

• A new market is opened for CubeSat / HAPS payload manufacturers and equipment providers

• A new source of data for EO service providers and value added resellers

ORCA makes high quality data available to all, fueling pioneering developments.

ORCA Optical and Radio-Frequency Constellations on Aircraft

t

Real-TimeSatellite Connectivity

Terrestrial Connectivity

Near-Real-TimeAirport Connectivity

Several Developments in Satellite Constellations and HAPS

Optical and Radio-frequency Constellations on Aircraft

Solving Various Issues• No launch costs• No regulatory issues (only certification of payload/

equipment)• No space environment specs: lower cost, longer

lifetime, maintenance possible• Better link budget and imagery resolution / simpler

equipment / no latency• ‘Constellation’ operations not necessary - only

payload operations• No space debris generation

Demonstration of ORCA Constellation Services (DOCS)• SkyfloX B.V. with a team of international partners started the ESA ARTES applications activity DOCS • Main objective: assess the issues of placing ORCA payloads on commercial airliners from technical, business, and legal point of view• First services selected for the DOCS demonstration: Earth Observation High Resolution Imagery with focus on pipeline/infrastructure

monitoring, a challenging service to evaluate ORCA capabilities

DOCS Partners

Ongoing Phase: Technical, Legal, and Business Evaluations. CDR in October 2017

Test Flights in Nov & Dec 2017 on AD&C Test Aircraft Socata TB-10

Optical/Thermal Imaging Test Flights

Connectivity/Communications Test Flights

Next Phase: Pilot Deployment (2018/2019)

Payload certification

Pilot deployment on commercial aircraft

SERVICE ARCHITECTURE OUTLINE

Revisit Hourly to Real-Time

Very High Resolution Meter class

Coverage Full Countries Coverage Several Times per Day

Sensor diversity, fused data potential, high collection capacity, low latency, and revisit make possible new monitoring and fast response services

A plethora of applications can be supported by ORCA, and the system may enable entirely new applications

Forest Fire Detection

Infrastructure Monitoring

Business Intelligence

Environmental Monitoring

MarineApplications

DisasterRelief

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS SkyfloX acknowledges Eurocontrol for the provision of flight data.

CONTACT DETAILS SkyfloX B.V. European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre Kapteynstraat 1, 2201BB, Noordwijk

www.skyflox.eu info@skyflox.eu

ORCA

GENERIC PAYLOAD SCHEMATIC• Mass equivalent to passenger suitcase• COTS components• Maintenance, upgrades, and replacement possible

Prime Coordination, system

architecture and design, simulations, business

analysis, IPR

Aircraft CertificationPayload certification, and

installation on aircraft

EO Service Provider and Image Processing

ProviderEarth observation expertise, data processing software,

image processing

Platform ProviderProvision of technical

requirements, logistics, and provision of access

to fleet

Connectivity Evaluate various real-time and non-real-time

connectivity options

EO Marketing / SalesCustomer’s identification

and contacts, pricing strategy, Multi sensor data

marketing

ORCA proposes to use Commercial Aircraft as a ‘Platform’ to carry small equipment mounted on the aircraft; several equipped aircraft form a ‘constellation’ which may support several Earth Observation and Telecommunication services.

The equipment will be EASA certified, will not interfere with regular aircraft operations, and will be operated by the ORCA operator (thus, no intervention is required by the pilot or aviation operator). The use of existing aerial infrastructure avoids high launch costs, and furthermore does not create space debris.

In the DOCS project, the pipeline and infrastructure monitoring services are addressed, as a challenging application to define the capabilities of ORCA. ORCA is addressed in the DOCS project from the technical, business and legal points of view. A wide range of EO and Telecommunication services could also be supported by an ORCA constellation. This new platform/constellation concept, may even create new markets, not possible with existing systems such as, for example, forest fires or infrastructure monitoring which require real time information.

ORCA complements existing space based earth observation solutions, by realising a sub-orbital constellation capable of supplying wide coverage earth observation data with high spatial and temporal resolution, in a sustainable and affordable manner.

A most ecological constellation re-using the most reliable platform: commercial aircraft

4G/LTE

A NOVEL VALUE CHAIN

Payload Serviceability & Sensor Interchangeability

Low CAPEX Requirements

Prime Coordination, system

architecture and design, simulations, business

analysis, IPR

Aircraft CertificationPayload certification, and

installation on aircraft

EO Service Provider and Image Processing

ProviderEarth observation expertise, data processing software,

image processing

Platform ProviderProvision of technical

requirements, logistics, and provision of access

to fleet

Connectivity Evaluate various real-time and non-real-time

connectivity options

EO Marketing / SalesCustomer’s identification

and contacts, pricing strategy, Multi sensor data

marketing

• SkyfloX (NL) acts as prime, and takes care of coordination, system architecture and design, simulations, business & legal analyses

• AD&C (DE) provides key certification expertise, and will perform test flights

• TUI (NL) provides information regarding installation issues, ORCA payload placement, and other technical aviation issues

• VITO (BE) provides expertise in EO and ground-processing• TNO (NL) addresses connectivity scenarios, satellite and terrestrial

based, for real-time and near-real-time options• SIGMA (DE) evaluates various applications from a commercial

perspective, and provides early entry into various EO segments

Prime Aircraft Certification Airliner Image Processing Provider Connectivity EO Marketing / Sales

Business analyses and talks/cooperation with airliners, value chain partners, and end-users confirm commercial interest

Legal assessment has indicated no show-stoppers

User Requirements received from end-users (Oil & Gas companies), used to dimension the system

DOCS Partner Expertises

ORCA “THE MISSING LAYER”

}ORCA COMPLEMENTS SATELLITE, HAPS, AND RPAS DATA ORCA APPLICATIONS

Large investments in Small Satellite Constellations: • OneWeb - 900 Smallsats EO Constellation• SpaceX - 12000 Smallsats Constellation• Planet - 150+ Smallsat EO Constellation

Key Issue: Launch Costs Currently 50KG to LEO costs €1,750,000

Several Alternative Platforms are Proposed RPAS, Stratospheric Balloons, HAPS (e.g. Airbus Zephyr & TAS’ Stratobus)

But alternative platforms still have to solve various issues:• CAPEX / OPEX intensive• Regional operations• Unregulated in most countries

Noting the market opportunity, wide availability of small/low cost payloads, high launch costs, and various issues faced by alternative platforms,SKYFLOX PROPOSES A NOVEL SOLUTION:

} Small and low cost payloads andequipment are widely available

AssetTracking

Insurance

PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF DOCS PROJECT • Coverage simulations performed with real air traffic data provided under NDA by Eurocontrol • Excellent coverage possible, even with single airline fleet (see typical examples below)

PERFORMANCE

European Revisit - Connectivity Applications Fleet of TUI Group (Line of Sight Coverage)

European Revisit - Earth Observation Fleets of Ryanair, TUI Group, Lufthansa (Forest Fire Application)

Data entries are 30 minutes apart (resulting in conservative estimations)

Illustration of daily coverage over Europe for daytime hours for the TUI Group fleet on a low traffic day. The colour bar indicates how many planes are in range within the timeframe defined. For clarity, number of planes >20 not shown

SYSTEM

Illustration of daily (24h) coverage over Europe for the fleets of Ryanair, TUI Group, and Lufthansa on a low traffic day. The colour bar indicates how many planes are in range within the timeframe defined. For clarity, number of planes >20 not shown

European Revisit - Earth Observation Fleets of Ryanair, TUI Group, Lufthansa (Metric Resolution)

Data entries are 30 minutes apart (resulting in conservative estimations)

ORCA INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDER AND OPERATOR

AIRLINEPLATFORM 1

AIRLINEPLATFORM n

IMAGE PROCESSINGPROVIDER

EO SERVICEPROVIDER 1

CASH FLOWS

CERTIFICATIONPROVIDER

EO APPLICATION 1END USERS

EO APPLICATION 2END USERS

EO APPLICATION 3END USERS

EO APPLICATION nEND USERS

PAYLOADMANUFACTURER

EO SERVICEPROVIDER n

DATABASE (CLOUD)