Store-and-forward message relay using microsatellites - The UoSAT-3 Pacsat communications payload
Abstract
The UoSAT-3 Pacsat Communications Experiment has been successfully commissioned in orbit. It contains a modern 16-bit microprocessor running at 8 MHz, making it one of the most powerful onboard computers ever launched on a civilian satellite. The central processing unit, the program memory, serial and parallel input/output, and message storage subsystems are discussed. The mechanical, electrical, and thermal characteristics are also examined. The Quadron Communications Facility, a quadron multitasking operating system which allows the power contained in this system to be used by groundstation programmers working in a well-known high-level language, is considered. Protocol development and multiple-access protocols are discussed and the on-orbit commissioning process is described.
- Publication:
-
Annual AIAA/Utah State University 4th Conference on Small Satellites, Volume 1
- Pub Date:
- 1990
- Bibcode:
- 1990aiaa....1.....W
- Keywords:
-
- Communication Satellites;
- Message Processing;
- Multiple Access;
- Onboard Data Processing;
- Radio Relay Systems;
- Transponders;
- Central Processing Units;
- Data Storage;
- Electronic Mail;
- Frequency Shift Keying;
- Integrated Circuits;
- Microprocessors;
- Miniaturization;
- Protocol (Computers);
- Random Access Memory;
- Solar Sensors;
- Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command and Tracking