UNIT II

SPACE SEGMENT

INTRODUCTION

o A Satellite Communicaton System Can Be Divided Into Two Segments.

 EARTH SEGMENT (or) GROUND SEGMENT
 SPACE SEGMENT.
o Space and Earth segment are used toe monitor and control the space craft.
o It also include the ground facilities needed to keep the satellite operational
are
 Tracking
 Telemetry
 Command
o Communication satellite consists two main function
 Payload – service to launch the satellite.
 Bus - mechanical and electrical support.
o Payload - supports the band used for communication the space link and
device remove interference. (communication)
o Bus - supports altitude and orbit controls, propulsion, TT&C and electrical
power.
o Transponder – connecting link between the satellites transmit and receive the
antenna.
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SPACECRAFT TECHNOLOGY

 The typical satellite consists of the communications payload and the

network of supporting sub systems or bus.
o The supporting sub systems include.
 Structure
 Primary power
 Thermal control
 Telemetry , Tracking and Command.
 Attitude control.
 Propulsion.
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STRUCTURE

o The structure can be used to hold the spacecraft together must be designed variety of
loads.
o During launch and transfer there are acceleration, vibration and aerodynamic loads,
centrifugal stresses, operating thrusts and separation shocks.
o In operating orbit we have to find operating thrusts, centrifugal stresses, thermal
stresses and exposure to charged particle radiation.
o Some common structural materials are
o Aluminium
o Magnesium
 o Stainless steel
o Invar
o Titanium
o Graphite reinforced phenolic (GFRP)
o Fiber glass epoxy
o Beryllium

THE POWER SUPPLY

o The primary electrical power for operating the electronic equipment is obtained for
solar cell.
o Therefore arrays of cells in series – parallel connection are required.
o Cylindrical solar arrays are used with shinning satellites, thus the array are only
partially in sunshine at any given time.
o Another type of solar panel are rectangular array in geostationary orbit.
o The full components of solar cells are exposed to sun light and the sail rotate to track
the sun they capable of greater power output than cylindrical array.
o The cells panels for the HS376 satellite manufactured by Hughes spaces and
communications company.
o Dimension of satellites is 216 cm in diameter and 660 cm long when fully deployed.
o The panels produce 940W dc power at the beginning of life and drop to 760W at the
10years.
o Power is provided by two nickel-cadmium (Ni-cd) long life batteries which will
delivers 830W.
o At the end of life battery recharge time is less than 16h.
o Higher power can achieved with solar panel arranged in the form of
rectangular solar sails.

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ATTITUDE CONTROL AND ORBIT CONTROL:

 Attitude control is necessary for example to ensure that directional antennas point in
the proper directions.
 There are two things are;
o It must keep the antennas pointed in the proper direction on the surface of the
earth or perhaps another satellite,
o It must keep the solar array pointed towards the sun.

 At the same time it must correct for attitude changes resulting from orbital
disturbances and from upsetting torques generated when making station keeping
maneuver.
 All attitude control systems require sensors.
 It is the resolution of these sensors that limits the ultimate pointing accuracy of the
space craft.
 Sensors can be optical or radio frequency sensors to work ground based transmitters.
 A number of forces referred to as disturbance torques can alter the attitude some
examples being the gravitational field of the earth and the moon solar radiation and
meteorite impacts.
 Attitude control must not be confused with station keeping which is the term used for
maintaining a satellite in its correct orbital position although the two are closely
related.
  Infrared sensors referred to as horizon detectors are used to detect the rim of the
earth against the background of space.
 The controlling torques is generated by two ways.
o Passive attitude control
o Active attitude control

Passive attitude control

o The use of mechanism which stabilize the satellite without putting a drain on
the satellite’s energy supplies.
o Passive attitude control are “Spin Stabilization”, and “Gravity Gradient
Stabilization”
o The spin stabilization is most widely used in communication satellites and the
gravity gradient depends on the gravitational field of the central body.

Active attitude control

o With active attitude control there is no overall stabilizing troque present to resist the
disturbance torques.
o In this technique corrective torques is applied in response to the disturbance torque.
 Momentum wheels EM coils and mass expulsion devices are used to generate the
control torque.

Three axis stabilization:

 The three (RPY) axis are

 Roll axis
 Pitch axis
 Yaw axis
  These three axis are pass through the centre of gravity of the satellite.
 Movement of the satellite about the roll axis moves the antenna food print north
and south.
 Movement of the pitch axis moves the food print east and west.
 Movement about the yaw axis rotation the antenna food print.

Spinning satellite stabilization

 Spin stabilization may be achieved with cylindrical satellites. Satellites are

mechanically balanced in particular axis and then spinning around the axis.
 Geo stationary satellites the spin axis is adjusted to be parallel to the N-S axis of the
earth.
 Spin rate 50 to rev/min. spin is initiated during the launch phase by means of small
gas jet.
 In the absence of disturbance torques, the spinning satellite would maintain its correct
attitude relative to the earth.
 Disturbance torques are generated in a number of ways both external and internal to
the satellite.

 If an omnidirectional antenna is used then antenna points along the pitch axis also
rotates with the satellites.
  Hs 376 space craft in that antenna is mounted on a despun shell it also consists of
communication repeaters.
 The antenna feed can be connected directly to the transponders without the need for
radio frequency rotary joints, while the complete platforms is despun.
 Control signals and power must be transferred to the despun section and a mechanical
bearing must be provided are known as the Bearing and Power Transfer Assembly.
(BAPTA).

MOMENTUM WHEEL STABILIZATION

 Stability also can be achieved by utilizing the gyroscopic effect of a spinning flywheel
and this approach is used in satellites with case like bodies.
 A momentum wheel consists of a flywheel the bearing assembly the casing and an
electric drive motor with associated electronic control circuity.
 The flywheel is attached to the rotor which consists of a permanent magnet providing
the magnetic field for motor action. The stator of the motor is attached to the body of
the satellites.
 The motor provides the coupling between the flywheel and the satellite structure.
Speed and torque control of the motor is exercised through the currents feed to the
stator.
 When a momentum wheel is operated with zero momentum bias it is generally
referred to as a Reaction wheel.

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THERMAL CONTROL:

 Satellite are affected by thermal radiation from the sun and the earth and also
from the earth reflection.
 The thermal radiation from earth and earth’s reflection are negligible
geostationary satellite and it will only affect the low earth orbit satellites.
 Satellite also generates heats which has to be removed.
 Satellite equipment should operate as nearly possible stable temperature
environment.
 Thermal blankets and shields may be used to provide insulation. Radiation
mirrors used to remove heat from the communication payload.
 Spinning satellite have some advantage with body stabilized is that the
shinning body provides and averaging of the temperature extremes
experienced from solar flux and the cold back ground of deep space.
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PROPULSION SUB SYSTEM

 A communication satellite requires a proplusion syb system to maintain a proper

orientation and spin rate in transfer orbit, inject itself into geostationary orbit
maintain itself at the assigned longitude in the equatorial plane by station keeping
and assist in attitude control.
 Final orbit injection into geostationary orbit is performed with a solid rocket
APOGEE KICK MOTOR (APK) integrated within the spacecraft.
 A liquid propellant such as hydrazine is used for transfer and drift orbit maneuvers
station keeping and attitude control.
 The liquid propellant subsystem is called the REACTION CONTROL SUB
SYSTEMS (RCS).
 Propulsion systems like those used in the SYNCOM program used cold gases such
as nitrogen and hydrogen peroxide.

 It decomposes exothermally under the influence of a platinum catalyst such as

shell 405 according the reactions.

3N2H4  4NH3+N2+335KJ

4NH2N2+6H2-184KJ

 The total decomposition of the ammonia the next reaction is

N2H4N2+2H2+50KJ
  Monopropellant hydrazine systems can have their specific impulses increased
by increasing the thrusters temperature.
 Higher performance liquid bipropellant systems are:
o Monomethyl hydrazine fuel
o Nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer
 Helium is used to force the liquid propellant through the thrusters when a
valve is opened by command.
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COMMUNICATION PAYLOAD AND SUPPORTING SUBSYSTEMS

 In 1800s when scientists were beginning to understand electromagnetism and

discovered that electromagnetic (EM) radiation generated by one device can
be detected by another located at some distance away.
 The Second major module is the communication payload which is made up of
transponders. A transponder is capable of
o Receiving uplinked radio signals from earth satellite transmission
stations.
o Amplifying received radio signals.
o Sorting the input signals and directing the output signals through
input/output signal multiplexers to the proper downlink antennas for
retransmission to earth receiving stations.
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