Low Cost Ku-Band Satellite Transmitter System

摘要

The NASA Space-based Telemetry and Range Safety (STARS) program has tested a low-cost Ku-Band transmitter alternative for Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) applications based on an existing inter-range instrumentation group-106 (IRIG-106) shaped offset quadrature phase-shift keying (SOQPSK) transmitter. The data collected indicates that IRIG-based hardware should be capable of providing a low-cost TDRSS option for Ku-Band and S-Band TDRSS return link applications. The existing transmitter hardware is not currently space qualified, however, it can satisfy TDRSS transmitter requirements for suborbital applications such as uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs), a significant area of interest at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California