In Russia, they have established control of a drone via satellite

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, July 17 The Gonets Satellite System company together with Geoscan for the first time In Russia, they conducted an experiment and established control of a drone via a space satellite, reported the press service of Gonz (part of Roscosmos
).“For the first time in Russia, the technology for controlling a drone via satellite has been implemented. As part of a joint experiment by JSC Satellite System Gonets and the Geoscan company, which was carried out at the Archipelago-2024 design and educational intensive in the Sakhalin region, location data was successfully transmitted , telemetry data of the drone in the data center (data processing center. — Ed.) of the Gonets satellite system, and also a command was sent via satellite to forcibly return the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle. — Ed.) to the launch site,» — said the company. «650» data-crop-height=»366″ data-source-sid=»rian_photo» title=»UAV» class=»lazyload» width=»1920″ height=»1080″ decoding=»async» />
In the future, it may be used to track the location of drones where there are no other communication channels
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Testing was carried out using the Geoscan 201 drone, which was equipped with an experimental Gonets on-board modem and an antenna in a special lightweight form factor. Ground tests and flights at the Pushisty airfield took place from July 13 to 16. During this time, the developers assessed the possibility of establishing communications, transmitting telemetry data from the drone to the Gonets-M spacecraft and sending commands from the ground control station to the drone via satellite.

A total of six flights were completed. The drone transmitted 218 information messages to the FTP server of the Gonets system. In addition, during this time, three messages with in-flight control commands were transmitted via feedback.
According to the general director of Gonets Pavel Cherenkov, quoted by the press service, domestic satellite communication systems with widespread coverage open up broad horizons for the development of unmanned systems.

“But today’s event marks much more: a new era in the development of unmanned solutions in general, when satellite technologies come to this industry and allow it to reveal its potential in a completely different way,” Cherenkov said.

According to him, this opens up the possibility of over-the-horizon control of all types of drones, as well as a new level of control over them and the ability to obtain the required information from flight zones.