Ramona Adams
NASA has signed a license agreement with Mobile Antenna Platform Systems Inc. to commercialize a portable antenna platform the company designed to provide users satellite-based tracking functions for unmanned aerial vehicles.
The space agency said Friday the platform is built to constantly rotate approximately 60 pounds of antennas, transmitters and receivers and eliminate the need for additional load-balancing hardware.
The platform also features auto-tracking software that uses targets’ global positioning system locations to maintain line-of-sight link, NASA added.
Jason Pottinger, director of business strategy at Mobile Antenna Platform Systems, said Academic Technology Ventures will support the launch of the patent-pending platform which will work to expand UAV use and applications.
NASA said the platform is intended for use in other applications such as atmospheric and university research, marine communications, satellite tracking in multiple frequencies and weather balloon tracking.
