F. Gargione, B. Abbe, M.J. Agan, T.C. Jedrey, P. Sohn

Abstract | Full Paper (PDF, 2.1 MB)

The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), developed and built by Lockheed Martin Astro Space for the NASA Lewis Research Center, was launched in September 1993 on the Shuttle STS 51 mission. ACTS is a digital experimental communications test bed that incorporates gigahertz bandwidth transponders operating at Ka band, hopping spot beams, on-board storage and switching, and dynamic rain fade compensation.

This paper describes the ACTS enabling technologies, the design of the communications payload, and some of the terrestrial and aeronautical mobile experiments that have been conducted to date.

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