Test report: Low cost access and efficient use of TDRSS

In order to develop new ways to increase the number of users taking advantage of NASA's Space Network for space-to-ground communications links, researchers at New Mexico State University (NMSU) developed a technique for using non-gimballed antennas for accessing a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) within the Space Network (SN). This concept would allow spin-stabilized satellites to access one of the TDRS spacecraft in the SN constellation as the user satellite sweeps past the TDRS position as the satellite approaches either its ascending or descending node if this node is relatively close to the TDRS subsatellite point. ne research team from NMSU developing this concept proposed to NASA the use of the Extreme Ultra Violet Explorer (EUVE) to test this concept on orbit. EUVE differs from the desired satellite configuration in that EUVE has a relatively high-gain parabolic antenna and, most importantly, EUVE has an inertially-stabilized attitude control system while the concept to be tested was for a spin-stabilized satellite. We believed that these limitations would not affect the basic proof-of-concept test we were trying to achieve. With the approval and coordination of NASA, a total of six satellite passes through the West TDRS were requested and the necessary equipment configured for data collection at the Second TDRS Ground Terminal (STGT), also known as Danzante, at the White Sands Complex.