Telemetry Design

The basic telemetry-system concept for Explorer XIII was selected primarily on the basis of demonstrated performance (ref. IV-1). The successful orbiting of Vanguard II (1959 Alpha} and Vanguard III (1959 Eta} had proven the basic design of the tracking and telemetry concepts which were compatible with mini-track network. It was necessary for the NASA Langley Research Center (LRC) to expand the system to provide a 48-channel telemetry system. Two of these systems were used in the Explorer XIII in order to provide the required channel capacity.