The US Coast Guard plans to launch a new space based Automatic Identification System (AIS) in 2007.
The Coast Guard has been studying the feasibility of receiving maritime automatic identification system (AIS) signals from space since 2001. In May 2004 the Coast Guard contracted with ORBCOMM, a satellite data communications company, to develop and build the capability to receive process and forward AIS signals from space via an AIS receiver onboard a communications satellite. In addition, ORBCOMM will provide the ground systems capable of processing the AIS signals and relaying the collected messages to the Coast Guard.
"This line of sight system was originally designed as a collision avoidance tool, but Coast Guard engineers and scientists quickly realized that significant ship tracking capabilities could be accomplished far out to sea if a receiver were placed on a spacecraft," said Dana Goward, director of the Coast Guard's maritime domain awareness program.
Studies conducted at Johns Hopkins University in 2003 indicated this concept was feasible, but it was not proven until a Dec. 16, 2006, launch by the Department of Defense of the TACSAT-2 satellite, which was equipped with an automatic identification receiver.
The Coast Guard's ORBCOMM CDS-3 (Concept Demonstration Satellite-3) satellite is scheduled to launch in the first or second quarter of 2007, and ORBCOMM has announced plans to include automatic identification system receivers in future communications satellites.
This Orbcomm-CDS 3 satellite will provide standard ORBCOMM service, and will also have a U.S. Coast Guard payload to support their Automatic Identification System (AIS). This satellite will receive signals emitted from vessels, enhancing U.S. Coast Guard monitoring techniques as part of their homeland security initiatives. This satellite is scheduled to be launched on board the russian Kosmos-3M carrier rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
In addition to assisting the U.S. Coast Guard receive the AIS transmissions, this launch is the first of a planned series of replenishment satellites.
In addition to performing the same communications tasks as ORBCOMM's existing satellites, the new satellites, like the U.S. Coast Guard concept validation satellite, will be able to receive the Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals for global maritime monitoring.