Athos, an experimental telecommunication program to promote new platform and payload technologies

The Athos project has been proposed for studying the technologies appropriate for the next generation of European telecommunications spacecraft. Athos would be launched in 1985 by the Ariane 4, and would validate the Eurostar platform design as well as support investigations of future telecommunications systems. The 877 kg satellite would be placed in a 7 deg inclination GEO position. It is designed to carry eight 36 MHz bandwidth transponders operating at 6/4 GHz, three 20/30 GHz transponders with a 4 GHz switching matrix, a module for examining propagation in the 20/40/90 GHz bands, and a module for monitoring the spacecraft environment and concommitant performance degradation. A service life of 7 yr is intended, together with a 1.25 kW power supply and 3 axis stabilization. The testing programs will define technologies and techniques for the ECS 2, Telecom 2, etc., spacecraft.