Shuttle payload S-band communications study

The work to identify, evaluate, and make recommendations concerning the functions and interfaces of those orbiter avionic subsystems which are dedicated to, or play some part in, handling communication signals (telemetry and command) to/from payloads (spacecraft) that will be carried into orbit by the shuttle is reported. Some principal directions of the research are: (1) analysis of the ability of the various avionic equipment to interface with and appropriately process payload signals; (2) development of criteria which will foster equipment compatibility with diverse types of payloads and signals; (3) study of operational procedures, especially those affecting signal acquisition; (4) trade-off analysis for end-to-end data link performance optimization; (5) identification of possible hardware design weakness which might degrade signal processing performance.