The main advantage of an unmanned aircraft has its downside: as a rule, the area where the device is located is out of the operator’s sight. This makes it imperative to create an encrypted security system that can eliminate natural noise and interference and be safe from simulated attacks. As the altitude of the orbit in which a satellite is placed increases, thus, does the period of its circulation. At an altitude of 35,790 kilometers above Earth, an apparatus takes 24 hours to complete a rotation around the planet (Ma, Xu, & Pang, 2017). However, if a satellite is in geosynchronous orbit, it is subject to forces that can slowly change its position over time. This includes both the elliptical shape of the planet and the Sun’s and Moon’s attraction, which increases the potential for a satellite to deviate from its orbit and interferes with the optimal operation of the drone. Moreover, the rapidly developing technology industry poses a potential threat to the private distribution of such systems.
The most straightforward principle of unmanned vehicle design is the choice of the location of radio signal sources and the frequencies that do not create interference. The 1977 World Radiocommunication Conference established this for the Eastern Hemisphere (Yuniarti, 2018). At the same time, the method of interference control involves increasing the transmitter’s power to a level that is guaranteed to exceed the potential interference. This method is often used in military unmanned satellite systems, but its application is in conflict with the need for electromagnetic compatibility, regulatory restrictions and is also energy-consuming (Mostafa & Schnell, 2016). Nevertheless, each party to the agreement must be allocated certain frequency bands to use an unmanned device. Bands in the 4/6 GHz and 11/14 GHz bands and 800 MHz each for the Space-Earth and Earth-Space bands have been reserved for this purpose (“Fixed and fixed-satellite services,” n.d.). For example, most of the 4/6 GHz spectrum for the United States is dedicated to international intercontinental drone systems. The general technical requirements for this type of equipment must be met to obtain an unmanned aerial vehicle license. In particular, the FCC regulation of 2019 gives a clear indication that Earth satellite should not have a mass more than 180 kg (Federal Communications Commission, 2019). In addition, the flying device must have an acceptable upper and lower frequency spectrum.
References
- Federal Communications Commission. (2019). Report and order [PDF document]. Web.
- Fixed and fixed-satellite services. (n.d.). Web.
- Ma, L., Xu, X., & Pang, F. (2016). Accuracy assessment of Geostationary-Earth-Orbit with simplified perturbations models. Artificial Satellites, 51(2), 55-59.
- Mostafa, M., & Schnell, M. (2016). Unmanned aircraft systems: Spectrum related issues for control and non-payload communications. In 2016 Integrated Communications Navigation and Surveillance (pp. 8B1-1). Herndon, VA: IEEE.
- Yuniarti, D. (2018). Regulatory challenges of broadband communication services from high altitude platforms (HAPs). In 2018 International conference on information and communications technology (pp. 919-922). Yogyakarta, Indonesia: IEEE.