Azercosmos Ground Station (AGS). Photo: Infostellar

Infostellar will support Panasonic’s ‘CURTIS’ satellite by providing multiple ground stations through the company’s StellarStation platform, the two Japanese companies announced Thursday. This includes providing a ground station in Gifu, Japan owned by Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI); a ground station in Azerbaijan owned by Azercosmos; and ground stations in South Africa and Bahrain owned by another partner ground station facility for this satellite mission.

StellarStation provides a network of third-party ground stations around the world and enables the setup of multiple ground stations in a short period of time. In addition, the use of multiple ground stations increases opportunities for communication with satellites in the S-band, which is common for satellite operations, and allows for large observational data to be downloaded over multiple separate contacts, leading to a quick and effective implementation of the technical demonstration.

CURTIS is a technical demonstration satellite that was launched from the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this year, and mainly consists of three mission payloads. Firstly, it wants to demonstrate the operation of the satellite itself, designed as an easy-to-assemble satellite. Secondly, it aims to conduct technical demonstrations of Panasonic Group products in space. Panasonic will demonstrate components using components and modules that are already in use on the ground, and verify the possibility of converting them for space usage. Finally, it wants to demonstrate circuit formation technology using a thermal management unit composed of technology that downsizes the basic bus section of the satellite and expands the volume of the mission section, as well as graphite material technology with excellent heat dissipation properties.

“Our mission is ‘We connect Earth and Space to empower the future’. And we aim to ‘Be the most effective enabler of space business by providing the best access to satellite’. This is our vision. We hope to contribute to the success of satellite operators’ missions by providing a comprehensive range of services related to the ground segment. Through the utilization of technical data obtained from the Panasonic Group’s demonstration, we hope that this will lead to the future development of the space industry,” Naomi Kurahara, CEO Infostellar, said in a statement.