Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Franklin, Stephen F..
the Space Technology 8 (ST8) mission is the latest in NASA's New Millenium Program technology demonstration missions. ST8 includes a spacecraft bus built by industry, flying four new technology payloads in low Earth orbit. This paper will describe each payload, along with a brief description of the mission and spacecraft.
This paper provides an overview of the Mars Telecom Orbiter (MTO) mission, and is an update to the paper presented at last year’s conference. Launched in 2009, MTO will provide Mars-to-Earth relay services for NASA missions arriving at Mars between 2010 and 2020, enabling far higher science data return and lowering the telecom and operations costs for these missions. MTO carries an optical communications payload, which will demonstrate downlink bit rates from 1 Mbps up to and possibly exceeding 30 Mbps. MTO will also demonstrate the ability to autonomously navigate, and to search for and rendezvous with an orbiting sample, in preparation for NASA’s proposed Mars Sample Return Mission. A to-be-defined science instrument will also be carried.
This paper describes the evolution of telecommunication systems at Mars. It reviews the telecommunications capabilities, technology and limiting factors of current and planned Mars orbiters from Mars Global Surveyor to the planned Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO)
This paper describes the evolution of telecommunication systems at Mars. It reviews the telecommunications capabilities, technology and limiting factors of current and planned Mars orbiters from Mars Global Surveyor to the planned Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO).