Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Thursday, April 02, 2020

Arsat plans to launch in 2023 a satellite to be built by Invap

The so-called "Second Generation 1 (SG1)" will demand a US$ 200 million investment to be financed by credits from multilateral organizations, to which state funds will be added. This reactivates the development and production of high technology which was buried since 2015.

Arsat is defining the technical requirements and specifications of a geostationary satellite that Invap will build to occupy one of the orbits of Argentina. It is estimated that the Second Generation 1 (SG1) could be launched in 2023. It will demand a US$ 200 million investment, which will be financed by credits from multilateral organizations, to which state funds will be added. This reactivates the development and production of high technology which was buried since 2015.

This generation of high performance satellites (HTS) is smaller than previous models and more versatile.

The Satelite. The new-generation model of satellites developed by Invap, in partnership with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), has been in progress for a year and is financed with the US$ 60 million loan provided by TAI. The recipient of these funds is the company GSATCOM, whose shareholders are Invap and TAI. The satellites, which are in their project development stage nearing completion, operate with an electric propulsion system through which they carry out all their activities, both on-board and maneuvering.

The SG1 will be able to integrate a payload with a consumption of up to 7 Kw and a capacity of up to 50 Gbps. Its weight is around 2,000 kilograms, much less than that of Arsat 1 and Arsat 2, whose operation and orbital displacement is due to liquid fuel (which, together with the tank, increases its weight). The reduction of the weight allows to equip them with a greater quantity of instruments and, also, more transponders. This increases the transmission capacity of the satellite and also gives possibilities to operate in different bands, like those of the previous generation. The combination of the mentioned elements extends their useful life.

The platform design is scalable and modular, allowing for flexible, customizable designs with reconfiguration of adaptive frequencies, coverage and power. Another advantage is that it can be put into orbit with any of the existing launchers worldwide.

The Tai experience. In 1973 Turkey created a company to reduce its foreign dependence in the defense area. A decade later, in 1984, emerged the current TAI, a member of Invap for a year, which is controlled by the armed forces and the defense ministry of the Eurasian country.

TAI has experience in satellite production. In 2012 it put the Gokturk 1 into orbit, had Telespazio as its main contractor and in 2016 the Gokturk 2 whose contractor was TAI and its capacity was mainly occupied by South Korea. Each one demanded investments of 250 million euros. Both are dedicated to land observation and military uses.

The state-owned satellite operator Turksat, in 2015, commissioned TAI to build the Turksat 6, which would be the first of its kind, will operate in the Ku band with 16 transponders intended for civilian use and others in X-band for military use, and its launch is announced for this year.

Parallel to its partnership with Invap, Tai develops a platform called Small Com similar to the models of the Turkish-Argentine company GSATCOM.

Disjunctive.It did not reveal what business model Arsat plans for the first new generation satellite and the third with national flag to orbit.

The decision to make is about how many of its transponders will be for Ka band and how many for Ku or other technologies. Arsat has to face two issues. One, which could be considered a priority, is to have a response to the demand that will be in 3-4 years in the Ku band. And on the other, comply with policies that focus on bringing the Internet to the entire territory and for that purpose the Ka band is ideal.

The political objective was expressed by the president of Arsat, Pablo Tognetti and the general manager Invap, Vicente Campenni, agreed in pointing out that the new device was focused on giving Internet in remote areas. In the same sense, the Secretary of Innovation, Micaela Sánchez Malcolm, and the head of the SubTic, Martín Olmos, expressed themselves. It was what they reported after a meeting on February 2 at the Benavídez plant.

On the other hand, the capacity of Arsat 1 and Arsat 2 is practically full and will be exceeded in 2023, since demand will be sustained in the next three years. In particular, this responds to the loss in orbit of the Intelsat 29e satellite in April 2019, with capacity in the C, Ku and Ka bands. Therefore, the state company will have to be very careful to maintain an abundant wholesale offer for its current clients, a captive market, in addition to having future prospects.

This scenario suggests that there would be a majority of KU band transponders and a smaller portion of Ka band on the new Arsat satellite. But the definitions are not yet known, beyond what part of the current executive cast planned in its previous management that the Arsat 3 would operate in Ka and could continue to be tempted with that idea, giving primacy to services in that band.

Enhancement of infrastructure. Almost three months into management, Arsat's new board plans activities to enhance the communications infrastructure it manages. At the same time, start the completion of the sections of the trunk line of the Federal Optical Fiber Network (Refefo) and execute the so-called Refefo 2 and 3 that contemplate the complementation of the network with a series of fiber rings that finish covering the national territory. It is estimated that it will be necessary to deploy nearly 4,000 kilometers of fiber optics to complete the three construction stages.

Maintenance tasks have also been arranged and, on the other hand, there is an alarm due to the intensity of the fiber cuts. This requires the continuous movement of crews both Arsat and a private maintenance company hired by the management of Raúl Martínez. The Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) network consisting of about 100 antennas that provide coverage and service to almost 90% of the country's inhabitants, will receive maintenance. The batteries that the transmitters have will be replaced immediately. Martinez's business with Hughes. Convergencialatina revealed in February that the new government was investigating the agreement made by the outgoing president of Arsat, Raúl Martínez, and the US company Hughes, consisting of the purchase of Ka-band satellite capacity and 5,000 antennas to provide service at remote points in the Andean region. The information originated in a journalists' chat with Enacom vice president Gustavo López, who apparently forgot to warn that his statements were "off the record".

Since the project was known, the market considered it crazy due to the investment and the cost of the service, impossible to pay for inhabitants of poor areas. And then it became cloudy, they qualified, especially for the direct purchase of the antennas with money provided by Enacom chaired by Silvana Giudice.

The government is considering negotiating to cancel the contract with the company of the American military industrial apparatus. And at the same time define the possibility of selling the antennas, given that they would not be usable if the agreement with Hughes is terminated.

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