UNIT - III

The Space Segment

Power supply
Attitude control
Station keeping Thermal Control
Telemetry, Tracking and command (TT&C)
Antenna subsystem
Transponders
Wide Band Receiver
Earth Segment
Receive only home TV System
Community Antenna TV
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Satellite Communication Segments

A satellite communications system can be broadly divided into two segments
a ground segment
a space segment.
The space segment will obviously include the satellites, but it also includes the
ground facilities needed to keep the satellites operational, these being referred to
as the tracking, telemetry, and command (TT&C) facilities.

Space systems are complex pieces of equipment designed to perform specific

functions for a specified design life. Space systems are not merely robots
launched into space and then left to perform their mission. To keep a space
system functioning over many years requires almost constant attention through a
complex network of equipment and the involvement of many people.

Space Systems
Space systems have three distinct segments:
Space Segment:
The satellites placed into orbit or components used to launch the
satellites.
Control Segment:
The personnel, equipment and facilities responsible for the operation
and control of the satellite and, in many communications systems,
control of users' transmissions through the satellites.
User Segment:
The personnel, equipment and facilities that use the capabilities
provided by the satellite payload.
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Definitions
The payload refers to the equipment used to provide the service for
which the satellite has been launched.
The bus refers not only to the vehicle which carries the payload but
also to the various subsystems which provide the power, attitude
control, orbital control, thermal control, and command and telemetry
functions required to service the payload.
In a communications satellite, the equipment which provides the
connecting link between the satellites transmit and receive antennas is
referred to as the transponder.
The transponder forms one of the main sections of the payload, the
other being the antenna subsystems.

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Power Supply
Satellites require power to operate the electrical equipment that
is on board.
Satellites which have high power sensors or transmit strong or
continuous signals require more power than those which have
low power sensors and radios.
For example, a satellite with a radar emitter and receiver
requires a significant amount of power.
Communications satellites which receive, process, amplify and
retransmit signals sent from users on the Earth or from other
satellites require more power than a scientific satellite with only
few sensors and a small radio to transmit the data to researchers
on the ground.
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Power Supply
Primary power from Solar cells.
Individual cells - small amounts of power
Arrays of cells in series parallel connection.
Higher powers can be achieved with solar panels arranged in the
form of rectangular solar coils.
Solar sails must be folded during the launch phase and extended
when in geostationary orbit.

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Satellite Communication Segments

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The Earth will eclipse a geostationary satellite twice a year (Spring

and Autumn).
During eclipse, storage batteries must be provided. Eg. Ni-Cd , NiH2 etc

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Stabilization and Attitude control

Stabilization and attitude control are necessary to ensure that the
satellite maintains the proper attitude.
Satellites are subjected to a number of forces in space such as
particles streaming from the Sun, meteorites, atmospheric drag,
gravity from the Moon, gravity gradients and other
perturbations.
These forces cause satellites to wobble, spin, drift, or move in
other ways not desired. Most satellites which provide visual
or electronic images of the Earth or its environment maintain three
axis stabilization (roll, pitch and yaw).
Many communications satellites are designed to rotate about their
longitudinal axis (roll) and thus have only two axis stabilization.16
Slide 2

Stabilization and Attitude control

Two and three axis stabilization allow sensors and antennas to be pointed
in specific directions.
Devices such as momentum wheels on the satellite help to stabilize the
satellite while in orbit.
Position, velocity and attitude data from on board sun sensors, star
trackers, horizon scanners and other devices is transmitted to ground
control stations.
When momentum wheels and other such passive devices cannot
compensate or adjust the orbit, the satellite controllers send signals to the
satellite to fire thrusters in short spurts to control roll, pitch, yaw and to
make corrects in orbital altitude.
To reduce size, mass, complexity and cost some small satellites
are designed to tumble freely through space without any stabilization or
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attitude control.

Attitude Control
The attitude of a satellite refers to its orientation in space.
Attitude control is necessary, for example, to ensure that directional
antennas point in the proper directions.
Controlling torques may be generated in a number of ways. Dampers
Energy Absorbers
Passive attitude control refers to the use of mechanisms which stabilize
the satellite without putting a drain on the satellites energy supplies.
Examples of passive attitude control are spin stabilization and gravity
gradient stabilization.
With Active attitude control, there is no overall stabilizing torque present
to resist the disturbance torques.
Methods used to generate active control torques include momentum
wheels, electromagnetic coils.
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Satellite Communication Segments

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Roll, pitch, and yaw axes

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Spinning satellite stabilization

Spin stabilization may be achieved with cylindrical satellites.
The satellite is constructed so that it is mechanically balanced about one
particular axis and is then set spinning around this axis.
For geostationary satellites, the spin axis is adjusted to be parallel to the
N-S axis of the earth.

Spin stabilization in the geostationary orbit. The spin axis lies along the pitch
axis, parallel to the earths N-S axis.
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Momentum wheel stabilization

The gyroscopic effect of a spinning satellite was shown to provide stability
for the satellite attitude.

Stability also can be achieved by utilizing the gyroscopic effect of a

spinning flywheel, and this approach is used in satellites with cube-like
bodies.

These are known as body-stabilized satellites.

The complete unit, termed a momentum wheel, consists of a flywheel, the
bearing assembly, the casing, and an electric drive motor with associated
electronic control circuitry.
The term momentum wheel is usually reserved for wheels that
operate at nonzero momentum. This is termed a momentum bias.
When a momentum wheel is operated with zero momentum bias, it
is generally referred to as a reaction wheel. Reaction wheels are used
in three-axis stabilized systems.
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A gyroscope or "circle" is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of

rotation is free to assume any orientation.
When rotating, the orientation of this axis is unaffected by tilting or
rotation.

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Momentum wheel stabilization

Alternative momentum wheel stabilization systems: (a) one-wheel, (b) two
wheel, c) three-wheel.

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Station Keeping
In addition to having its attitude controlled, it is important that a geostationary
satellite be kept in its correct orbital slot.
This results in the satellite drifting back through its nominal station position,
coming to a stop, and recommencing the drift along the orbit until the jets are
pulsed once again. These maneuvers are termed east-west station-keeping
maneuvers.

Counteracting jets must be pulsed when

the inclination is at zero to halt the change
in inclination. These maneuvers are termed
north-south station-keeping maneuvers.

Slide 2

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Station Keeping
The rectangular box shows the positional limits for a satellite in
geostationary orbit in relation to beams from a 30-m and a 5-m antenna.
Assuming 38,000 km (typical) for the
slant range, the diameter of the 30-m
beam at the satellite will be about 80
km.
This beam does not encompass the
whole of the box and therefore could
miss the satellite. Such narrow-beam
antennas therefore must track the
satellite.
The diameter of the 5-m antenna
beam at the satellite will be about 464
km, and this does encompass the
box, so tracking is not required.
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Thermal Control
Satellites are subject to large thermal gradients, receiving the suns
radiation on one side while the other side faces into space.
In addition, thermal radiation from the earth
Equipment in the satellite also generates heat
Thermal blankets and shields may be used to provide insulation. Radiation
mirrors are often used to remove heat from the communications payload.
These mirrored drums surround the communications equipment shelves in each
case and provide good radiation paths for the generated heat to escape into the
surrounding space.
In order to maintain constant temperature conditions, heaters may
be switched on (usually on command from ground) to make up for the
heat reduction.

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TT&C Subsystem
The TT&C subsystem performs several routine functions aboard the
spacecraft.
The telemetry, or telemetering, function could be interpreted as measurement at a
distance.
Specifically, it refers to the overall operation of generating an electrical signal
proportional to the quantity being measured and encoding and transmitting this
to a distant station, which for the satellite is one of the earth stations.
Telemetry and command may be thought of as complementary functions.
The telemetry subsystem transmits information about the satellite to the earth
station, while the command subsystem receives command signals from the earth
station, often in response to telemetered information.
The command subsystem demodulates and, if necessary, decodes the
command signals and routes these to the appropriate equipment needed to
execute the necessary action.
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Block diagram form the TT&C facilities used by Canadian Telesat for its satellites.

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Transponders
They are Communications channel between the receive and transmit
antennas in a communications satellite.
The bandwidth allocated for C-band service is 500 MHz, and this is divided into
subbands, one for each transponder.
Atypical transponder bandwidth is 36 MHz, and allowing for a 4-MHz guard
band between transponders, 12 such transponders can be accommodated in
the 500-MHz bandwidth.
By making use of polarization isolation, this number can be doubled.
Polarization isolation refers to the fact that carriers, which may be on the same
frequency but with opposite senses of polarization, can be isolated from one
another by receiving antennas matched to the incoming polarization.
Carriers with opposite senses of polarization may overlap in frequency,
this technique is referred to as frequency reuse.

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Transponders
MHz
Guard
band

Transponder BW
12 transponders

Section of an uplink frequency and polarization

plan. Numbers refer to frequency in megahertz.

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Satellite Transponder Channels

TV signal

Uplink Freq.
Range

Downlink
Freq. Range

Telephony

Freq.
Convertor
Channelling Scheme

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Signals are channelized in to freq. bands representing individual transponder

Wide Band Receiver

Duplicate Receiver

Tunnel Diode, FET Amplifiers

Diodes- Mixers

Redundant Receiver

Overall Receiver gain

Low Noise Amplifier

Total noise power is expressed as
equivalent noise temperature.

Frequency Conversion
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Input De-multiplexer
Filters

Receiver

Chain of Circulators

Redundant
Receiver

Coupler
Power Splitter

It separates the broadband

input in to transponder
frequency channels
Frequency channels are
arranged in even and odd
numbered groups Greater
frequency separation
Each filter has a bandwidth of
36 MHz.

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Power Amplifier
Traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) are widely used in transponders
to provide the final output power required to the transmit antenna.
In the TWT, an electron-beam gun assembly consisting of a heater, a cathode,
and focusing electrodes is used to form an electron beam.
A magnetic field is required to confine the beam to travel along the inside of a
wire helix.
The rf signal to be amplified is coupled into the helix at the end nearest
the cathode and sets up a traveling wave along the helix.
The electric field of the wave will have a component along the axis of the helix.

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Schematic of TWT and Power

Supplies

Electron Beam Gun

wire helix

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Power transfer characteristics of a

TWT

At low-input powers, the output-input power relationship is linear; that is, a

given decibel change in input power will produce the same decibel change in
output power.
At higher power inputs, the output power saturates, the point of maximum
power output being known as the saturation point.
The saturation point is a very convenient reference point, and input and output
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quantities are usually referred to it.

Transfer curve for a single carrier

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The Antenna Subsystem

The antennas carried aboard a satellite provide the dual functions of
receiving the uplink and transmitting the downlink signals.
The gain of the paraboloidal reflector, relative to an isotropic radiator, is given by

Wavelength , reflector diameter, aperture efficiency= 0.55.

These are fed from horn arrays, and various groups of horns can be excited to
produce the beam shape required. Separate arrays are used for transmit and
receive. Each array has 146 dual-polarization horns.
The transmit and receive signals are separated in a device known as a diplexer,
and the separation is further aided by means of frequency filtering. Polarization
discrimination also may be used to separate the transmit and receive signals
using the same feed horn.
The polarization separation takes place in a device known as an orthocoupler, or
orthogonal mode transducer (OMT).
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Satellite Transponder Channels

Antenna Subsystem for

INTELSAT VI Satellite

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Earth Segment
The earth segment of a satellite communications system consists of the
transmit and receive earth stations.
The simplest of these are the home TV receive-only (TVRO) systems, and the
most complex are the terminal stations used for international communications
networks.

Receive-Only Home TV Systems

Planned broadcasting directly to home TV receivers takes place in the Ku (12-GHz)
band. This service is known as direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service.

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Block diagram showing a home terminal for DBS TV/FM

reception.

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The outdoor unit

This consists of a receiving antenna feeding directly into a low-noise
amplifier/converter combination. A parabolic reflector is generally used, with
the receiving horn mounted at the focus.
The receiving horn feeds into a low-noise converter (LNC) or possibly a
combination unit consisting of a low-noise amplifier (LNA) followed by a
converter. The combination is referred to as an LNB, for low-noise block.
The indoor unit for analog (FM) TV
The signal fed to the indoor unit is normally a wideband signal covering the
range 950 to 1450 MHz. This is amplified and passed to a tracking filter
which selects the desired channel.

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Community Antenna TV System

One possible arrangement for the indoor unit of a community antenna TV (CATV) system
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