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Proximity Link Design and Performance Options for a Mars Areostationary Relay SatelliteCurrent and near-term Mars relay telecommunications services are provided by a set of NASA and ESA Mars science orbiters equipped with UHF relay communication payloads employing operationally simple low-gain antennas. These have been extremely successful in supporting a series of landed Mars mission, greatly increasing data return relative to direct-to-Earth lander links. Yet their relay services are fundamentally constrained by the short contact times available from the selected science orbits. Future Mars areostationary orbiters, flying in circular, equatorial, 1- sol orbits, offer the potential for continuous coverage of Mars landers and rovers, radically changing the relay support paradigm. Achieving high rates on the longer slant ranges to areostationary altitude will require steered, high-gain links. Both RF and optical options exist for achieving data rates in excess of 100 Mb/s. Several point designs offer a measure of potential user burden, in terms of mass, volume, power, and pointing requirements for user relay payloads, as a function of desired proximity link performance.




Document ID
20170007088
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Edwards, Charles D.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Bell, David J.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Biswas, Abhijit
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Cheung, Kar-Ming
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Lock, Robert E.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 1, 2017
Publication Date
March 5, 2016
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Meeting Information
Meeting: 2016 IEEE Aerospace Conference
Location: Big Sky, MT
Country: United States
Start Date: March 5, 2016
End Date: March 12, 2016
Sponsors: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
telecommunications

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