PAYLOAD FOR A SATELLITE WITH AIS, AND CORRESPONDING METHOD

摘要

The invention relates to a payload for a satellite (4) that is capable of receiving AIS signals, including a primary transmission chain (100) that comprises an array (102) of receiving antennas (An1, An2, An3, An4, An5), each of which is connected in series to a receiver (RX1, RX2, RX3, RX4, RX5) without a demodulator, respectively, and followed by an analog/digital converter (CAN1, CAN2, CAN3, CAN4, CAN5), wherein the AIS output signals received at the same time by the reception antennas and digitized by the analog/digital converters, respectively, are saved separately in a mass storage (110) before being retransmitted back to the ground for beam-forming network processing. The payload includes a second transmission chain (116) that is capable of demodulating each received burst into useful monitoring data and of retransmitting said useful data back to the ground.