Modular bus and payload designs for the Shuttle era

The Space Shuttle, in combination with the Interim Upper Stage, will provide an economical means of placing payloads in geostationary orbit in the 1980s. This paper summarizes a recent study of multidiscipline applications payloads for Shuttle-IUS launch. Various concepts for modular 'bus' spacecraft structures and payload groupings based on equipment commonality are considered. Several bus and payload configurations, ranging from 160 to 1600 kg, are developed. A typical payload is described in some detail. The payload consists of equipment at 400 MHz for search and rescue and data collection, at 1.5 and 15 GHz for aeronautical, maritime, and land mobile communications, at 40 and 90 GHz for millimeter wave communications, and at other bands for meteorological radiometry, electromagnetic environment measurements, and interferometry.