08. Sept. 2007

Liebe ABORA III Besucher,

wir haben unsere Fahrt 550 Meilen vor den Azoren beendet. Vielen Dank für Ihr reges Interesse und die vielen positiven Rückmeldungen sowie den Zuspruch, den wir während unserer Seereise erhielten.
Wir konnten während unserer Expedition eine Unmenge neuer Erkenntnisse sammeln. Alle Teilnehmer sind gesund und munter auf der Heimreise. Für uns war ABORA III ein tolles Experiment und wir planen bereits heute, mit ABORA IV unsere Forschungen fortzusetzen. Wir würden uns freuen, wenn Sie dann wieder mit dabei sind!

Das ABORA III Team

 

How does the satellite system on board of the Abora3 work ?

The Abora3 is equipped with a small satellite-box, which allows sending and receiving datas or position reports. At the moment, the box sends all 4 hours it´s position, but there can be also reports been made manualy. The box includes a full 16-channel GPS, a serial Interface, a Heater and the Transceiver to INMARSAT. It is robust, water-resistant, shock-resistant and works in all environments. The voltage can be between 9 and 30 Volts. The Abora3 box is also equipped with an alarm-switch and an emergency battery-pack. In case of emergency, the switch has to be dropped down and an Alarm-Message with highest priority will be sent all 20 Minutes to the operation-center of SatPro. After alarm activation this message will be send withhin seconds by fax, e-mail and SMS to different authorities to start rescue activities. In case of emergency the Abora-Crew will take the system with them leaving the ship, so they will be tracked during rescue operations.
  Peter Schmolke, responsible for software on board, uses the DMR-System also for sending and receiving small messages. He has connected the box with his Laptop and gets all information like GPS-data, speed, heading, voltage etc.
All position-messages are forwarded automaticaly to the DWD, the german weather department, to provide them with exact weather forecasts for the crew.
Another highlight is the Logger-Function of the box, it saves the position all 20 minutes in an internal storage, where up to 10000 messages can be stored. This enables the leader of the expedition, Dominique Goerlitz, to have very exact datas from the complete trip and to combine them with weather informations like wind-directions.
 
  How can I compare the DMR200 with other systems ?
99,9% of all tracking systems are based on GSM, the mobile cell-phone standard. They are all landbased, because they need a connection point, which have a range of max. 30 kilometers. The DMR200 sends its datas via INMARSAT, a well known satellite-system since more than 25 years. INMARSAT has 4 satellites together with 4 backup-satellites around the equator in a high of 36,000 km. Datas can be send and received all over the world exept the pol-caps. Therefore such systems are highly recommended to be used in all environments, where GSM is not available and communication is necessary.