Digital spacecraft antenna tracking system

摘要

A digital spacecraft antenna tracking system (10) and method are provided which utilize an array of antenna feed elements (18) oriented relative to a shaped spacecraft reflector antenna system (14) each of which generates an output signal (22) corresponding to a received incident signal. The outputs (22) can be processed by a mixer/multiplexer (M/MUX 20) before processing by a digital tracking control receiver (TCR 24). The direction of a beacon signal (34) incident on the spacecraft reflector antenna system is obtained by the TCR by comparing the beacon response of the M/MUX to a set of premeasured responses to incident signals having a known direction or orientation relative to a reference tracking grid. The premeasured responses are stored in a memory (32) as a set of reference responses. Once the direction of the signal is obtained, the TCR assigns control voltage which are used by the spacecraft to steer the spacecraft antenna to a desired pointing direction relative to the beacon signal.