Russian low orbit system Gonets is being launched under the Russian Space Agency by the leaders of the field - Research and Development Institute of Precise Devices in Moscow and Research and Production Corporation of Applied Mechanics (NPO PM) in Krasnoyarsk, who have developed and operated the state low-orbit communication system known as Sekstet .
Main fields of application:
establishment of allocated corporate, banking, medical and administrative networks;
monitoring of vehicles condition and location;
ecological and industrial monitoring; collection of scientific data (geodetic, hydrological, seismological etc);
communication in remote regions having undeveloped communication infrastructure (the Far North, Siberia, the Far East regions and the like);
communication in emergency situations.
The system provides instant data transmission to users located within the satellite coverage area.
If the distance between users is over 5000 km the sender s data is recorded by the satellite and transmitted to the addressee when the addressee is within the satellite coverage area, the time of delay being not more than a few hours. If an instant delivery of a message to a remote region of the Earth is required, then after being received by a satellite the message is transmitted to the regional center. After that the message is passed to the addressee through other satellites and regional centers of Gonets system or through other communication channels.
The user unit consists of a radio modem and IBM-compatible PC.
The Gonets user units are equipped with small-size nondirectional antennas, that can be installed on vehicles and provide mobile communication.