The Tactical Communications Satellite

Early in 1969 the U. S. Air Force placed into synchronous orbit the largest communications satellite built to date. This vehicle, the tactical communications satellite (TACSAT), together with a variety of ground terminals, is designed to test experimentally and develop tactical communications concepts for all military services. This paper describes the spacecraft design focusing on the communications repeater. Measured performance characteristics affecting communications utilization of the spacecraft are presented.     

Compensators for Bandpass Nonlinearities in Satellite Communications

The characteristics of optimum compensators for bandpass non-linearities are described. A predistortion compensator to reduce the nonlinear phase and envelope distortion at the output of a traveling-wave tube (TWT) is developed, and a possible implementation as a simple network of power law devices in cascade with the input to the TWT is given. The overall compensated characteristic of the TWT approximates that of a piecewise linear limiter with a small phase shift. A computer simulation shows that the compensated system yields 0.3 to 0.5-dB improvement in performance of a 2-phase coherent phase shift keying (CPSK) system over the uncompensated system.     

Military Satellite Communications Using Small Earth Terminals

Satellite communications technology has reached the stage at which it is feasible to develop a reliable military tactical communications system using small transportable Earth terminals. This paper discusses the design considerations involved for a multiple-access system, with particular reference to the Earth terminals.     

Optimization of Coverage Pattern for Regional Communications Satellite

An optimization problem of an antenna coverage pattern for a regional communications satellite when an antenna-pointing error exists is discussed. A new performance measure is introduced to evaluate the coverage pattern. This measure is defined as the statistical mean of the ratio between two areas, the full service area and the part of it covered by the antenna. The optimum coverage pattern which maximizes this measure under certain constraint is obtained. The results of numerical calculations are included to demonstrate the technique.     

Artificial Site Shielding for Communications Satellite Earth Stations

A method of reducing the possibilities of interference between earth stations and microwave radio-relay stations by the use of pit shielding has been investigated. A pit was constructed containing a 32-foot diameter antenna. Measurements are reported which indicate a shielding advantage of at least 25 dB. A siting example under actual conditions is given.     

Japan's CS (Sakura) Communications Satellite Experiments

The Japanese Communications Satellite (CS), called Sakura, is a "Medium Capacity Communications Satellite for Experimental Purposes" and is the first experimental communications satellite in which 30/20 GHz bands were adopted and were developed for practical domestic use. Large scale field trials have been carried out for more than three years in order to evaluate 30/20 GHz (Ka-band) and 6/4 GHz (C-band) domestic satellite communications system technologies under actual operational conditions by using the CS Sakura launched in December 1977. Through the various experiments on Kand C-band large fixed and small transportable Earth station systems, satellite control experiments, and Ka-band propagation measurements, it has been verified that the medium capacity satellite communications system meets the design objectives.     

Orbital Inclination Effects on Communications Satellite System Design

Starting from the analysis of recommendations and technical reports of the International Telecommunications Union on the stationkeeping and pointing accuracy requirements of quasi-geostationary communications satellites, the following effects of orbital inclination and yaw control error on the system design are discussed: (1) the excursion in longitude during a 24 h period; (2) the efficiency of the geostationary orbit utilization for systems with frequency reuse using linear orthogonal polarizations; (3) the angular tracking requirements of Earth station antennas; and (4) the performance of TDMA systems.     

Closed-Loop Transmitting Power Control System for K-band Satellite Communications

In order to cope with K-band link loss variations and also to improve link reliability, a new closed-loop satellite access power control system is proposed. This system controls Earth station transmitting power so that the overall satellite link quality, such as S/N or error rate, converges to the stipulated value. Satellite transmitting power is also optimized by this control, enabling a considerable increase in transmission capacity and improvement in link reliability.     

Air-Ground, Ground-Air Communications Using Pseudo-Noise Through a Satellite

An air-ground, ground-air communications system that utilizes a satellite and a central control facility is described. The double-hop pseudo-noise system advantages, including equal sharing of power, use of frequency translating repeaters, optimum multipath rejection, and acceptable power densities on the ground are discussed. The selection of code division is presented together with an analysis of signal-to-noise ratios with a varied input. Modulation schemes are discussed, pro and con, and the effective radiated power versus antenna sizes for several combinations are analyzed.     

Communication Subsystem Design Trends for the Defense Satellite Communications Program

The Initial Defense Communication Satellite Program (IDCSP) hasbeen implemented successfully and is handling unique and vital militaryary communications. Tradeoff studies now being made are intended todefine the characteristics of the next phases of the Defense Satellite Communications Program (DSCP). This paper discusses briefly thecommunication subsystem design of the IDCSP for backgroundfor-information, and then discusses the design trends for future phases of the DSCP.The communication subsystem for the IDCSP is characterized bya single hard-limiting, low-power repeater with a toroidal patternantenna. Future trends in design will be toward multiple beams andmultiple repeaters with very wide bandwidths, high-powerquasilinear operation, and highly directive antennas. Several alternatetransponder configurations are evaluated in this paper, and an illustrativeive example is shown. Although long life is essential to future systems,as it was to the IDCSP, the trend will be to adding more complexity inthe satellite to increase the system capacity, while at the same timerequiring less complexity in earth terminals.     

Rejection of Multipath Interference in Satellite Communications by Use of Narrow-Band Filters

Earth-reflected multipath interference can be serious for communication between near-earth spacecraft and stationary satellites. It is shown that both the depth and rate of fading are reduced by using narrow-band filters. Curves demonstrate the saving in fading margin; this saving may be crucial in an emergency.     

An Overview of the Fast Auroral SnapshoT (FAST) Satellite

The FAST satellite is a highly sophisticated scientific satellite designed to carry out in situ measurements of acceleration physics and related plasma processes associated with the Earth's aurora. Initiated and conceptualized by scientists at the University of California at Berkeley, this satellite is the second of NASA's Small Explorer Satellite program designed to carry out small, highly focused, scientific investigations. FAST was launched on August 21, 1996 into a high inclination (83°) elliptical orbit with apogee and perigee altitudes of 4175 km and 350 km, respectively. The spacecraft design was tailored to take high-resolution data samples (or `snapshots') only while it crosses the auroral zones, which are latitudinally narrow sectors that encircle the polar regions of the Earth. The scientific instruments include energetic electron and ion electrostatic analyzers, an energetic ion instrument that distinguishes ion mass, and vector DC and wave electric and magnetic field instruments. A state-of-the-art flight computer (or instrument data processing unit) includes programmable processors that trigger the burst data collection when interesting physical phenomena are encountered and stores these data in a 1 Gbit solid-state memory for telemetry to the Earth at later times. The spacecraft incorporates a light, efficient, and highly innovative design, which blends proven sub-system concepts with the overall scientific instrument and mission requirements. The result is a new breed of space physics mission that gathers unprecedented fields and particles observations that are continuous and uninterrupted by spin effects. In this and other ways, the FAST mission represents a dramatic advance over previous auroral satellites. This paper describes the overall FAST mission, including a discussion of the spacecraft design parameters and philosophy, the FAST orbit, instrument and data acquisition systems, and mission operations.     

An Overview of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)

The Lunar Crater Observation Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), an accompanying payload to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission (Vondrak et al. 2010), was launched with LRO on 18 June 2009. The principle goal of the LCROSS mission was to shed light on the nature of the materials contained within permanently shadowed lunar craters. These Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) are of considerable interest due to the very low temperatures, <120?K, found within the shadowed regions (Paige et al. 2010a, 2010b) and the possibility of accumulated, cold-trapped volatiles contained therein. Two previous lunar missions, Clementine and Lunar Prospector, have made measurements that indicate the possibility of water ice associated with these PSRs. LCROSS used the spent LRO Earth-lunar transfer rocket stage, an Atlas V Centaur upper stage, as a kinetic impactor, impacting a PSR on 9 October 2009 and throwing ejecta up into sunlight where it was observed. This impactor was guided to its target by a Shepherding Spacecraft (SSC) which also contained a number of instruments that observed the lunar impact. A?campaign of terrestrial ground, Earth orbital and lunar orbital assets were also coordinated to observe the impact and subsequent crater and ejecta blanket. After observing the Centaur impact, the SSC became an impactor itself. The principal measurement goals of the LCROSS mission were to establish the form and concentration of the hydrogen-bearing material observed by Lunar Prospector, characterization of regolith within a PSR (including composition and physical properties), and the characterization of the perturbation to the lunar exosphere caused by the impact itself.     

Automation of Base Record Communications

Results of a study leading to the preparation of a concept formulation package and development plan for automation of record communications on a world-wide basis during the 1970' s are presented. The Automatic Base Communication System (ABCS), centered on an electronic store and forward message switch, utilizes stored programs to handle all U. S. Air Force base record communications.     

Progress in Reentry Communications

Considerable progress has been made in the past few years toward understanding and solving the spacecraft communications blackout problem caused by the reentry plasma sheath. A summary of the causes and effects of the reentry plasma sheath is presented, together with a discussion of reentry plasma diagnostic techniques, proposed methods of alleviating the communications blackout, and a review of the reentry flight experiments performed to better our understanding of the reentry plasma.     

卫星双向法与卫星测距

卫星双向时间比对是目前远距离台站时间比对精度最高的时间同步技术,时间比对精度达几百皮秒,比GPS共视技术的时间比对精度几乎高一个数量级。中科院国家授时中心根据多台站卫星时间比对经验,提出利用卫星双向比对技术进行卫星测距(称转发器定轨)。实验证明:利用卫星双向技术(卫星需要转发器)进行卫星测距,可得到高精度卫星轨道(内符精度为几厘米)和卫星预报轨道。     

Execute Command in Space Communications

Two types of feedback systems for a command channel are described. a) Complex Feedback?where, for each command, an identification is relayed back over the feedback channel. b) Decision Feedback?where the feedback channel is used only to state whether the satellite recognized the transmission as a command word. For a), the decision as to whether a command was properly received at the satellite is made on the ground, while for b), the decision is made at the satellite, the only purpose of the feedback channel being to cause the ground station to retransmit the command word if the satellite did not recognize the initial transmission. The decision feedback system then amounts to a one-way channel, since the satellite makes a decision after the initial transmission as to whether or not a command word was sent. If the transmitted command word is interpreted as a command, whether correct or not, the ground station has no further control. The following theorem is proved rigorously: ``It is always possible to specify a decision feedback system which gives the same error performance as a given complex feedback system.'     

Optimal Channelization in FDMA Communications

For most efficient performance in frequency-division multiple access (FDMA), a hard-limiting repeater should be operated completely channelized (i.e., each uplink carrier should be individually filtered and power-controlled prior to spacecraft limiting and downlink transmission). When there are a large number of uplink carriers involved, however, complete channelization is no longer feasible, and the uplink carriers must be grouped together (assigned frequencies), which allows joint filtering and amplification. In this correspondence, it is shown that an optimal grouping procedure always exists for minimizing required repeater power, no matter how many carriers and groups are to be used.