Multicarrier SPINE tests on the orbital test satellite module A

Two data experiments were originally conceived in 1975 by the European Space Agency (ESA) to act as a demonstration of potential business systems which could be operated through the future European Communication Satellite (ECS). These systems include the Satellite Transmission Equipment Linking Laboratories (STELLA) and the Space Informatics Network Experiment (SPINE). It was proposed by ESA to conduct a multicarrier test in module A of the Orbital Test Satellite (OTS) with the objective to try to establish modest estimates of the number of simultaneous SPINE transmissions which could be achieved given the constraint of bit error rates better than 0.00001. The test clearly demonstrated the viability of multicarrier operation of the SPINE experiment using module A.