Course Title
Subtitle 8 to 10 words long
Summary
This XXX-day course is designed for
satellite communications engineers, spacecraft engineers, and managers who wish to
enhance their understanding of this discipline
or become familiar with the "big picture" if
they work outside of the discipline. Each
topic is illustrated by worked numerical
examples, using published data for actual
satellite communications systems, including
INTELSAT, Hughes Galaxy, Lockheed
Martin Astrolink, IRIDIUM, GLOBALSTAR, ICO, and others.
Instructor
Dr. Robert A. Nelson is president of
Satellite Engineering Research Corp., a
consulting firm in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr.
Nelson has performed studies on satellite
communications, orbit and constellation
analysis, and spacecraft design for Space
Systems/Loral, GLOBALSTAR, ICO, CD
Radio, CAI, NASA, Naval Research
Laboratory, and many other companies and
government agencies. Dr. Nelson holds the
degree of Ph.D. in physics from the
University of Maryland and is a licensed
Professional Engineer. He teaches in the
Department of Aerospace Engineering at the
University of Maryland and is coauthor of
the textbook Satellite Communication
Systems Engineering, 2nd ed. (Prentice Hall,
1993). Dr. Nelson is a contributing writer to
Via Satellite magazine.
What You Will Learn
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How is the spacecraft deployed and
maintained in its required orbit?
How is the relative earth-satellite
geometry calculated?
How are the antenna gain and size
determined?
What are the methods of multiple
access, modulation, and coding?
How is the RF link budget calculated
and what data rate is supported?
What are typical characteristics of real
satellite systems?
What do satellite systems cost?
From this course you will obtain the
knowledge and ability to perform
basic satellite systems engineering
calculations, identify tradeoffs,
interact
meaningfully
with
colleagues, evaluate systems, and
understand the literature.
January 26-28, 2011
Beltsville. Maryland
$ATI provides (Y days 8:30am - 4:30pm)
"Register 3 or More & Receive $100 each Off the Course Tuition"
Course Outline
1. Spacecraft Configuration. Spin stabilization. Three-axis stabilization.
2. Satellite Communication Systems. Review of satellite communication. The
INTELSAT system. Commercial geostationary satellite systems. Low Earth Orbit and
Medium Earth Orbit satellite systems. The new broadband Ka-band and V-band systems.
3. Mission Analysis. Kepler's laws. Newton's laws. Orbital elements. Circular orbits.
Altitude regimes. Period of revolution. Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Medium Earth Orbit (MEO).
The geostationary orbit (GEO). Elliptical orbits. Molniya and Tundra orbits. Hohmann
Geostationary Transfer Orbit. Supersynchronous transfer orbit. Perigee velocity augmentation
maneuver. Launch vehicles.
4. Orbital Perturbations and Stationkeeping. Perturbations due to earth oblateness. Sun
synchronous orbits. Atmospheric drag. Effects of the sun and moon. Perturbations due to earth
triaxiality. Solar radiation pressure. North-south stationkeeping. East-west stationkeeping.
Eccentricity control. Rocket equation. Fuel budget. Inclined orbits.
5. The Spacecraft Environment. Van Allen belts. South Atlantic anomaly. Solar cell
radiation degradation. Eclipse time and duration. Orbital debris.
6. Earth-Satellite Geometry. Earth central angle. Coverage area. Slant range. Azimuth and
elevation. Nonspherical earth.
7. Antennas. Directivity. Gain. Antenna size. Half power beamwidth. Aperture efficiency. Other
efficiency factors. Antenna patterns. Prime focus, Cassegrain, and Gregorian feeds. Pointing
error. Coverage area and footprint. Multiple beam antennas.
8. The Electromagnetic Spectrum. Frequency bands used for satellite communication.
9. The RF Link. Power flux density. Equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP). Noise
temperature. C/No. Eb/No. G/T. Free space loss. The RF link equation. Decibel (dB) notation.
Uplink, downlink and composite performance. Intermodulation products. SFD. Backoff.
Typical satellite and earth station characteristics. Link budgets.
10. System Temperature. Antenna temperature. Noise figure. Total system temperature.
11. Rain Loss and Atmospheric Effects. Rain attenuation. Frequency dependence. Crane rain
model. Effect on G/T. Gaseous atmospheric absorption.
12. Modulation. Digital communications. BPSK, QPSK, FSK, QAM. Spectral power density.
Bandwidth. Bit Error Rate.
13. Coding. Hamming, BCH, Reed Solomon block codes. Convolutional codes. Viterbi algorithm.
Hard and soft decisions. Concatenated coding. Interleaving. Coding gain.
14. Multiple Access. Frequency division multiple access (FDMA). Time division multiple access
(TDMA). Code division multiple access (CDMA). Capacity estimates.
15. Link Budgets for Geostationary Satellite Systems. Worked examples for INTELSAT,
Hughes Galaxy, and Lockheed Martin Astrolink systems.
16. Link Budgets for LEO and MEO Satellite Systems. Worked examples for IRIDIUM,
GLOBALSTAR, ICO, and ORBCOMM. Payload issues and major tradeoffs. Constellation
design.
17. Interference Analysis. Geostationary and nongeostatiuonary satellite systems.
18. Design of a system. How a satellite system for a new service might be designed.