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Technology Developed for GMD Used for Katrina Relief

September 15, 2005, Huntsville, Alabama - Some say good things come in small packages. For emergency communications the saying is dramatically true. An SRS Technologies team of engineers, led by Paul Gierow, for nearly 20 years, funded by government SBIRs and IR&D resources, developed deployable space structures for space borne communications and power. GATR (Ground Antenna Transmit/Receive) Technologies was formed in 2004 by Mr. Gierow to focus on developing products from SBIR programs with a license from SRS to use its technologies in partnership with GATR. IGI, LLC from Chicago, a GATR Team member, supported the communications system development and G2 Satellite Solutions provided the satellite services. That same technology became a lifeline for hundreds of Mississippi residents in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

MDA’s Small Business Innovative Research program funds small businesses to engage in missile defense-related research. GMD sponsored this antenna technology for possible application to our In-Flight Interceptor Communication System. Aaron Corder, GMD-B, has several times packed the prototype antenna which can be checked in as luggage on a commercial airplane, and can be used for extra GMD bandwidth during testing at Kwajalein. “The technology is designed just for this,” Corder said, referring to disaster relief. “It’s for critical infrastructure replacement.”

Soon after it became apparent that Katrina would affect the coast’s communications infrastructure, contract personnel from the White House Communications Agency remembered a recent meeting with Gierow where he described the antenna technology. On Friday, September 2, they asked Gierow if he could provide 200 antennas for the recovery effort. Working with Senator Jeff Sessions’ office and at the request of GMD, MDA authorized $50,000 of SBIR funding to initiate the effort, and GATR quickly mobilized the SRS contributed 2.5 meter production prototype antenna for use by the Red Cross. There were only three antennas in development and they were able to provide only one serviceable antenna on short notice. Jennie Otto, an SRS Technologies test engineer, assisted in the preparations for deployment of the antenna system.

A week after the storm hit, Gierow delivered the antenna to a Woolmarket, MS, elementary school near Biloxi that 89 evacuees were calling home. In about an hour, he erected the lightweight communications antenna, pointed it at a satellite, and began to provide the only Internet connection available in Harrison County. For days, this lifeline remained the only means for hundreds of displaced Mississippians to file online requests for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance. Gierow and Scott McMichael, his brother-in-law and a Huntsville city employee, helped more than 250 families request federal assistance.

All that’s required to set up the antenna is to pound four stakes into the ground, inflate the antenna ball, and aim the electronic feed on top of the antenna ball to transmit a signal through a modem to a wireless router to a communications satellite. The entire system is Internet Protocol-based. It’s lightweight, easily transported, and doesn’t use much power in contrast with fixed satellite dishes that weigh tons and are not easily moved.

In addition to access to FEMA relief forms, Army medical doctors used the SRS and GATR’s communication system to prepare assessment reports, a CBS Radio affiliate out of Los Angeles broadcast reports, Red Cross volunteers from Spain contacted their families, a woman who was dug out from underneath her home contacted a friend in Iraq with the good news that she was injured but alive, and Gierow helped an elderly man locate a new assisted-living home in Jackson, MS.

With this relief effort, a story comes full circle. A technology sparked by a creative design for space applications helped hundreds of people whose lives were in disarray because they live near the beach. And missile defense research once again resulted in a spin-off technology that has great promise to improve the lives of Americans.

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