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LOGBOEK - JOURNAL DE BORD |
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exactEarth Nowhere to Hide
For ship owner and operators seeking to maximize the power of the 24/7 exact whereabouts of its ships – and others – at sea, meet exactEarth Ltd. ExactEarth – a subsidiary of ComDev – is reportedly the first and only data services company aiming to leverage advanced microsatellite technology to deliver monitoring solutions. A $40 million investment, its initial service, exactAIS, aims to provide a global vessel tracking and monitoring system based on a space-based AIS detection technology. Approximately $6m of the investment was used to crack the signal processing dilemma posed by AIS. As currently configured, AIS is only used to a range of about 50 miles from the shore. exactEarth – once fully operational – extends its reach to full global coverage via satellite. According to Peter Mabson, VP Corporate Development, the new technology has a myriad of applications – search and rescue operations, environ-mental protection, traffic monitoring and maritime security – and also the ability to “slow steam” meaning the optimal speed to effectively and cost-efficiently travel from port to port based on weather and traffic conditions. “We probably haven’t even dreamed up half of the applications for this system,” said Mabson, who said that the service could be used to enforce offshore navigation channels, ensuring that ship carrying potentially hazardous cargoes maintain a proper distance from a particular country’s shoreline. A key enabler for this technology is the actual satellite technology itself, in that the use of microwave satellite technology makes the satellites much smaller and lighter, meaning that they are far more economical to launch. One spacecraft is schedule to go into orbit in December 2009, and the current plan is for six more, to be completed in mid 2011. Early 2010 service will be commercially available via a fixed fee system – with the fee dependent on the amount of information and its frequency of delivery — charged annually. www.exactEarth.com
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