PACSAT: A passive communication satellite for survivable command and control
Abstract
Examines passive COMSATS as alternatives to active COMSATS in the hostile environment that may exist in the postattack period of a nuclear war. Inexpensive, survivable, and jam resistant, they offer an attractive low-data-rate capability. PACSAT is a proliferable candidate for this role. It consists of a long (about 1 km), gravity-gradient-stabilized array of small beads (about 1 cm in diameter) that reflects a narrow, conical, frequency-steerable beam back to the Earth. The properties of PACSAT are presented and its performance in a representative system for the command and control of MX is evaluated.
- Publication:
-
Interim Report RAND Corp
- Pub Date:
- November 1981
- Bibcode:
- 1981rand.rept.....B
- Keywords:
-
- Command And Control;
- Communication Satellites;
- Military Spacecraft;
- Antenna Arrays;
- Jamming;
- Mx Missile;
- Nuclear Explosion Effect;
- Nuclear Warfare;
- Survival;
- Launch Vehicles and Space Vehicles