Beyond Gravity (formerly RUAG Space) delivered a geostationary navigation receiver, called GEORIX, and an antenna to Maxar in 2021.
The receiver precisely determines a satellite’s position in orbit. Maxar installed GEORIX on Intelsat-40e, a geostationary communications satellite. Intelsat-40e is hosting NASA’s climate payload called Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO). GEORIX will help TEMPO determine where it is in orbit as it measures atmospheric gases – including ozone, nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde, and aerosols – over North America. Data collected by TEMPO will help improve air quality forecasting.
More precise climate data
“This will be the first time that a Beyond Gravity navigation receiver will fly in geostationary orbit, around 36’000 kilometers away from Earth,” says Anders Linder, EVP Division Satellites at Beyond Gravity. “The more precisely the position that NASA’s TEMPO can be determined by GEORIX, the more precise the climate data TEMPO can provide.” Currently, around 30 navigation receivers from Beyond Gravity determine the position of satellites in low-Earth orbit (about 2’000 kilometers from Earth).
Intelsat-40e and TEMPO will launch in early 2023 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
About TEMPO
TEMPO is a UV-visible spectrometer that will detect pollutants by measuring sunlight reflected and scattered from the Earth’s surface and atmosphere. The resulting data from TEMPO will be used to enhance air-quality forecasts in North America, enabling the more effective early public warning of pollution incidents. TEMPO is a collaborative effort between NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. TEMPO will deliver near-real-time air quality products to improve air quality forecasting. Rather than build a dedicated spacecraft to host the Ball Aerospace-built payload, NASA in 2019 partnered with Maxar to host it on Intelsat 40e (IS-40e).
More about the TEMPO mission: http://tempo.si.edu/overview.html
More about the integration of TEMPO spacecraft with Intelsat spacecraft: https://blog.maxar.com/space-infrastructure/2021/maxar-integrates-nasa-pollution-monitoring-payload-with-intelsat-40e-spacecraft
More about electronics from Beyond Gravity: https://www.beyondgravity.com/en/satellites/platform-electronics
