COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE PROGRAM
Discussion of the nasa passive and active communications satellite programs
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Discussion of the nasa passive and active communications satellite programs
Nasa communications satellite programs discussing echo, relay, syncom and advanced technological satellites
Electromagnetic field effects on rotation rate of satellite in polar orbit - Echo II
Contour plots tabulated for stress resultants and deformations brought about by sinusoidal in plane line loads acting along great circles of spherical satellites of Echo type
This paper describes the mechanical features of the horn- reflector antenna used for receiving signals reflected from the Project Echo balloon satellite, and presents in some detail the electrical characteristics (radiation patterns and gain) measured at a frequency of 2390 Mc. Theoretically derived characteristics which agree very well with the measurements are also presented; details of the calculations are given in the appendices.
Langley Research Center needed to coat the Echo 1 satellite with a fine mist of vaporized metal, and collaborated with industry to create "radiant barrier technology." In 2010, Ryan Garrett learned about a new version of the technology resistant to oxidation and founded RadiaSource in Ogden, Utah, to provide the NASA-derived technology for applications in homes, warehouses, gymnasiums, and agricultural settings.
Statistical reduction of satellite effective radio cross section of reflected radio signal power measurements made on Echo I passive satellite
Radar echoes from the icy Galilean satellites are unique in character and they may be explained by a phenomenon that was called the radar glory effect. The radar glory backscattering from buried craters was analyzed as a possible model for this effect. These craters have a smaller refractive index below the crater than above. The possibility exists that the rays will be totally internally reflected at the crater walls. The rays which contribute to the backscattering will come from a circular annulus, when viewed before the refraction occurs at the ice-vacuum surface, in a plane orthogonal to the rays reflected from the crater.
The study of the ionosphere using the Faraday rotation effect has been undertaken recently by means of rocket, satellite, and moon echo experiments. Different approximations have been used by different authors, resulting in methods with different degrees of complexity, and it is possible to say that the more accurate a method is, the more difficult its application becomes. However, the use of modern high-speed digital computers offers the possibility of using more complex methods in the solution of this problem, The program described in this report was written for the ILLIAC, the digital computer of the University of Illinois. Only the general features common to most digital computers will be mentioned. This program was prepared having in mind the analysis of the Faraday rotation effect, as recorded from artificial satellites. It is intended to be as general as possible in the conditions imposed on the assumed propagating medium: specifically there are no restrictions on the models of the electron density distribution and the earth's magnetic fields. long as the ray theory Ls valid. The program will trace separately the ordinary and the extraordinary mode, and it will find the virtual phase path length of a ray of each mode between the transmitter (satellite) and a receiver (station). The difference between respective phase path-lengths is related to the Faraday rotation through a constant which depends on the frequency.
The LAGEOS was extensively tested optically prior to launch. The measurement techniques used are described and resulting data is presented. Principal emphasis was placed on pulse spreading characteristics, range correction for center of mass tracking, and pulse distortion due to coherent effects. A mode-locked freqeuncy doubled Nd:YAG laser with a pulse width of about 60 ps was used as the ranging transmitter and a crossfield photo-multiplier was used in the receiver. High speed sampling electronics were employed to increase receiver bandwidth. LAGEOS reflected pulses typically had a width of 250 ps with a variability in the range correction of less than 2 mm rms. Pulse distortion due to coherent effects was inferred from average waveforms and appears to introduce less than + or - 50 ps jitter in the location of the pulse peak. Analytic results on this effect based on computer simulations are also presented. Theoretical and experimental data on the lidar cross section were developed in order to predict the strength of lidar echoes from the satellite. Cross section was measured using a large aperture laser collimating system to illuminate the LAGEOS. Reflected radiation far-field patterns were measured using the collimator in an autocollimating mode. Data were collected with an optical data digitzer and displayed as a three-dimensional plot of intensity versus the two far-field coordinates. Measurements were made at several wavelengths, for several types of polarizations, and as a function of satellite orientation.
Thermal analysis of the echo ii canister assembly during the period from ejection of its covering shroud to the separation of the canister halves
Established by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to function under the supervision of the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD) of the Langley Research Center, the Wallops Island flight test range began operations in 1945. Before the end of the decade, researchers at Wallops Island had developed two techniques for studying transonic problems - the free-falling body technique and the wing-flow technique - accomplishments which won NACA the needed funds to develop a guided missile for the Army Armed Forces. PARD kept abreast of developments in solid rocket motor technology and added new rockets to its inventory as they became available, and by 1955 Wallops Island programs encompassed sounding-rocket and spaceflight research. By 1959, after the Wallops range had become a NASA facility, it had played essential roles in the development of such satellite programs as Echo and Project Mercury.
The capability of a unique Airborne Doppler Lidar System to measure the horizontal winds in the vicinity of severe storm activity is demonstrated. The Airborne Doppler Lidar System (ADLS), developed at NASA/MSFC, was flown on a CV990 research aircraft during the CCOPE (Cooperative Convective Precipitation Experiments, Montana, Summer 1981). Flown between 400 and 600 m AGL, the lidar probed the subcloud regions of several deep convection storms. ADLS data collected near storms on 21 and 23 July 1981 are presented along with satellite imagery, radar echo maps and surface station measurements. These case studies are evidence of the successful performance of an airborne remote wind sensing system and the advantages of two dimension flow visualization of storm outflow structures and interactions.
A tracking horn-reflector antenna, a maser preamplifier (and standby parametric preamplifier), and a special FM demodulator were combined to form a low-noise receiving system which made possible the establishment of a high-quality voice circuit via the Echo I passive satellite. This paper describes the 2390-Mc receiving system located at the Bell Telephone Laboratories facility in Holmdel, New Jersey.
The photos show a few of the food products packaged in Alure, a metallized plastic material developed and manufactured by St. Regis Paper Company's Flexible Packaging Division, Dallas, Texas. The material incorporates a metallized film originally developed for space applications. Among the suppliers of the film to St. Regis is King-Seeley Thermos Company, Winchester, Ma'ssachusetts. Initially used by NASA as a signal-bouncing reflective coating for the Echo 1 communications satellite, the film was developed by a company later absorbed by King-Seeley. The metallized film was also used as insulating material for components of a number of other spacecraft. St. Regis developed Alure to meet a multiple packaging material need: good eye appeal, product protection for long periods and the ability to be used successfully on a wide variety of food packaging equipment. When the cost of aluminum foil skyrocketed, packagers sought substitute metallized materials but experiments with a number of them uncovered problems; some were too expensive, some did not adequately protect the product, some were difficult for the machinery to handle. Alure offers a solution. St. Regis created Alure by sandwiching the metallized film between layers of plastics. The resulting laminated metallized material has the superior eye appeal of foil but is less expensive and more easily machined. Alure effectively blocks out light, moisture and oxygen and therefore gives the packaged food long shelf life. A major packaging firm conducted its own tests of the material and confirmed the advantages of machinability and shelf life, adding that it runs faster on machines than materials used in the past and it decreases product waste; the net effect is increased productivity.
In the last decade, low bit rate speech coding research has received much attention resulting in newly developed, good quality, speech coders operating at as low as 4.8 Kb/s. Although speech quality at around 8 Kb/s is acceptable for a wide variety of applications, at 4.8 Kb/s more improvements in quality are necessary to make it acceptable to the majority of applications and users. In addition to the required low bit rate with acceptable speech quality, other facilities such as integrated digital echo cancellation and voice activity detection are now becoming necessary to provide a cost effective and compact solution. In this paper we describe a CELP speech coder with integrated echo canceller and a voice activity detector all of which have been implemented on a single DSP32C with 32 KBytes of SRAM. The quality of CELP coded speech has been improved significantly by a new codebook implementation which also simplifies the encoder/decoder complexity making room for the integration of a 64-tap echo canceller together with a voice activity detector.
Channel capacity, propagation times, echo suppressor problems, and associated problems in development of commercial communications satellite systems