Unit-3:Satellite Subsystems

Attitude & Orbit Control System(AOCS)

• This subsystem consists of rocket motors that are used to move the
satellite back to the correct orbit when external forces cause it to
drift off station to control the orbit of the satellite.
• Gas jets are used to control the attitude of the satellite.
• The attitude and orbit of a satellite must be controlled so that the
satellite’s antennas point toward the earth and so that user knows
where in the sky to look for the satellite.
Attitude control system

• When the satellite is placed into a stable orbit then the attitude of
the satellite is set by firing the jet thrusters present in the satellite.
• There are four ways to make a satellite stable in an orbit
• Spinning the satellite
• Three Axis Method
• Momentum wheel stabilization
• Thermal control
• Station keeping
Spinning the satellite

• In this method, the body of the satellite rotates around its spin axis.
• In general, it can be rotated at 30 to 100 rpm in order to produce a
force, which is of gyroscopic type.
• Due to this, the spin axis gets stabilized and the satellite will point in
the same direction. Satellites are of this type are called as spinners.
• Spinner contains a drum, which is of cylindrical shape. This drum is
covered with solar cells. Power systems and rockets are present in
this drum.
Cont..

• Communication subsystem is placed on top of the drum. An electric

motor drives this communication system.
• The direction of this motor will be opposite to the rotation of satellite
body, so that the antennas point towards earth.
• The satellites, which perform this kind of operation are called as de-
spin.
Cont..

• During launching phase, the satellite spins when the small radial gas
jets are operated.

• After this, the de-spin system operates in order to make the TTCM
subsystem antennas point towards earth station.
Momentum wheel stabilization

• Another method for achieving three-axis stabilization is to use

electrically-powered reaction wheels also called momentum wheels.
Massive wheels are mounted in three orthogonal axes aboard the
spacecraft.
• They provide a means to trade angular momentum back and forth
between spacecraft and wheels. To rotate the vehicle in one
direction, you spin up the proper wheel in the opposite direction. To
rotate the vehicle back, you slow down the wheel.
Cont..

• Excess momentum that builds up in the system due to external

torques, caused for example by solar photon pressure or gravity
gradient, must be occasionally removed from the system by applying
torque to the spacecraft, and allowing the wheels to acquire a desired
speed under computer control.
• This is done during maneuvers called momentum de-saturation,
(desat), or momentum unloads maneuvers.
• Many spacecraft use a system of thrusters to apply the torque for
desat.
Thermal Control

• Satellites are subject to large thermal gradients, receiving the sun’s

radiation on one side while the other side faces into space.
• In addition, thermal radiation from the earth and the earth’s albedo,
which is the fraction of the radiation falling on earth which is
reflected, can be significant for low-altitude earth-orbiting satellites,
although it is negligible for geostationary satellites.
• Equipment in the satellite also generates heat which has to be
removed.
Cont..

• The most important consideration is that the satellite’s equipment

should operate as nearly as possible in a stable temperature
environment.
• Various steps are taken to achieve this.
• Thermal blankets and shields may be used to provide insulation.
Radiation mirrors are often used to remove heat from the
communications payload.
Station Keeping

• In addition to having its attitude control, it is important that a geo-

stationary satellite be kept in its correct orbital slot. The equatorial
ellipticity of the earth causes geostationary satellites to drift slowly
along the orbit, to one of two stable points, at 75°E and 105°W.
• To counter this drift, an oppositely directed velocity component is
imparted to the satellite by means of jets, which are pulsed once
every 2 or 3 weeks.
• Orbital correction is carried out by command from the TT&C earth
station, which monitors the satellite position
Cont..

• East-west and north south station-keeping maneuvers are usually

carried out using the same thrusters as are used for attitude control.

• This results in the satellite drifting back through its nominal station
position, coming to a stop, and recommencing the drift along the
orbit until the jets are pulsed once again.

• These maneuvers are termed as east-west station-keeping

maneuvers. Satellites in the 6/4-GHz band must be kept within 0.1° of
the designated longitude, and in the 14/12-GHz band, within 0.05°.
Orbit control

•The gravitation forces of moon & the sun cause inclination of orbital plane.
There are many other smaller forces that act on satellite causing the orbit to
change.

•For the orbit to be truly geostationary, it must lie in equatorial plane, be

circular and have correct altitude.
Cont..

•The various forces acting on the satellite will steadily pull it out of the
correct orbit; it is the function of the orbit control system to return it to the
correct orbit.
• Gas jets that can impart velocity changes along three reference axes of
satellite are used.
• Correcting the inclination of a satellite orbit requires more fuel to expended
than for any other orbital correction.
•This places a weight penalty on those satellites that must maintain accurate
station keeping & reduces communication payload they can carry
Cont..
Power System
•All communication satellites obtain their electrical power from solar cells, which
converts incident sunlight into electrical energy. Some deep space planetary
research satellites have used thermonuclear generators.
• Communication satellites have not used nuclear generators. Sun is a powerful
source of energy.

1.39kW/𝑚2.
• At geostationary altitude, the radiation falling on a satellite has an intensity of

• Solar cells do not convert all incident energy into electrical power; their efficiency
is typically 20 to 25% at beginning of life (BOL) but falls with the time because of
aging of the cells.
• Since sufficient power must be available at the end of life (EOL) of satellite to
supply all the systems on board, about 15% extra area of solar cells is usually
provided as an allowance for aging.
Cont..
•A spin stabilized satellite usually has a cylindrical body covered in solar
cells. Because solar cells are on cylindrical surface, half of the cells are
not illuminated at all, which results little electrical power being
generated.
•The cells that are not illuminated by sunlight face cold space, which
cause them to cool down.

• More recently, large communication satellites for direct broadcast

operation generate up to 6kW from solar power.
Transponders

• A transponder consists of BPF to select the particular channel’s band

of frequency, a down converter & an output amplifier.
• Below figure shows a transponder used on many satellites for 6/4
GHz band.
• The local oscillator is at 2225 MHz to provide the appropriate shift in
frequency from 6 GHz to 4 GHz. Band pass filter after the mixer
removes unwanted frequencies. The output power amplifier is
usually a solid state power amplifier (SSPA) unless a very high output
power is required.
Cont..

• Redundancy is provided for high-power amplifiers in each

transponder by including a spare TWTA (travelling Wave tube
amplifier) or solid-state amplifier (SSPA) that can be switched if
primary power amplifiers fail.
Cont..
Cont..
Cont..

• Transponders for use in the 14/11-GHz bands normally employ a

double frequency conversion scheme. Incoming 14-GHz carrier is
translated to an IF around 1GHz.

• The amplification & filtering are performed at 1 GHz & a relatively

high-level carrier is translated back to 11 GHz for amplification by
HPA
TT&C subsystem
Telemetry

• It collects data from many sensors within satellite & sends these data
to the controlling earth station.
• Several hundred of sensors are located on satellite to monitor
pressure in the fuel tanks, voltage & current in power conditioning
unit, current drawn by each subsystem, & critical voltages & current
in communications electronics.
• Temperature of many subsystems must be kept within
predetermined limits, so many temp. Sensors are fitted.
Cont..

• The sensor data, the status of each subsystem are reported back to
the earth by telemetry system.
• Telemetry data are digitized and transmitted as phase shift keying
(PSK) of low- power telemetry carrier using time division techniques.

• At controlling earth station a computer can be used to monitor, store,

and decode telemetry data so that status of any system or sensors on
the satellite can be determined immediately.
• Alarms can also be sounded if any vital parameter goes outside
allowable limits.
Tracking

• A no. of techniques can be used to determine current orbit of

satellite. Velocity & acceleration sensors on satellite can be used to
establish the change in orbit from last known position, by integration
of data.
• The earth station controlling satellite can observe the Doppler shift
of telemetry carrier to determine rate at which range is changing.
• Active determination of range can be achieved by transmitting a
pulse, or sequence of pulses, to the satellite and observing the time
delay before pulse is received again.
Command

• The command system is used to make changes in attitude and

corrections to the orbit and to control communication system.
• During launch, it is used to control firing of AKM & to spin up spinner
or extend solar sails & antennas of 3- axis stabilized satellite.
• The command structure must possess safeguards against
unauthorized attempts to make changes to satellite’s operation.
Encryption of commands & responses is used to provide security in
command system.
Cont..

• After monitoring all the data, commands are generated at the control
terminal of computer.
• The command word is sent in a TDM frame to the satellite.
• After checking for validity in satellite, command word is sent back to
the control station via telemetry link where it is checked again in the
computer.
• If it found correctly, an execute instruction will sent to satellite.
• The entire process may take 5 0r 10s, but minimizes the risk of
erroneous commands causing satellite malfunction.
The Earth Segment

• The earth segment of a satellite communications system consists of

the transmit and receive earth stations.
• The simplest of these are the home TV receive-only (TVRO) systems,
and the most complex are the terminal stations used for international
communications networks.
Receive-Only Home TV Systems

• Satellite TV Systems are planned to broadcast directly to home TV

receivers, it takes place in the Ku (12-GHz) band.
• This service is known as direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service.
• There is some variation in the frequency bands assigned to different
geographic regions.
• The comparatively large satellite receiving dishes are used to receive
downlink TV signals at C band (4 GHz).
Cont..

• The major differences between the Ku-band and the C-band receive only
systems lies in the frequency of operation of the outdoor unit and the
fact that satellites intended for DBS have much higher equivalent
isotropic radiated power (EIRP), As already mentioned C-band antennas
are considerably larger than DBS antennas.
• For clarity, only the Ku-band system is described here. Fig below shows
the main units in a home terminal DBS TV receiving system. Although
there will be variations from system to system, the diagram covers the
basic concept for analog [frequency modulated (FM)] TV.
• Direct-to-home digital TV, which is well on the way to replacing analog
systems. However, the outdoor unit is similar for both systems.
Cont..
Outdoor unit

• This consists of a receiving antenna feeding directly into a low-noise

amplifier/converter combination. A parabolic reflector is generally
used, with the receiving horn mounted at the focus.
• A common design is to have the focus directly in front of the
reflector, a higher-gain receiving antenna is not needed because the
DBS operate at a much higher EIRP.
• The downlink frequency band of 12.2 to 12.7 GHz spans a range of
500 MHz, which accommodates 32 TV/FM channels, each of which is
24-MHz wide.
Cont..

• The receiving horn feeds into a low-noise converter (LNC) or possibly

a combination unit consisting of a low-noise amplifier (LNA) followed
by a converter. The combination is referred to as an LNB, for low-
noise block.
• The low-noise amplification must be provided at the cable input in
order to maintain a satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio. An LNA at the
indoor end of the cable would be of little use, because it would also
amplify the cable thermal noise.
Indoor unit

• The signal fed to the indoor unit is normally a wideband signal

covering the range 950 to 1450 MHz. This is amplified and passed to a
tracking filter which selects the desired channel.
• The selected channel is again down converted, this time from the
950-to 1450-MHz range to a fixed intermediate frequency, usually 70
MHz .
• The 70-MHz amplifier amplifies the signal up to the levels required for
demodulation.
Cont..

• A major difference between DBS TV and conventional TV is that with

DBS, frequency modulation is used, whereas with conventional TV,
amplitude modulation in the form of vestigial single sideband (VSSB)
is used.
• The 70-MHz, FM intermediate frequency (IF) carrier therefore must
be demodulated, and the baseband information used to generate a
VSSB signal which is fed into one of the VHF/UHF channels of a
standard TV set.
Master Antenna TV System
• A master antenna TV (MATV) system is used to provide reception of
DBS TV/FM channels to a small group of users, for example, to the
tenants in an apartment building.
• It consists of a single outdoor unit (antenna and LNA/C) feeding a
number of indoor units, as shown below.
• It is basically similar to the home system already described, but with
each user having access to all the channels independently of the
other users. The advantage is that only one outdoor unit is required,
but as shown, separate LNA/Cs and feeder cables are required.
• In this, a larger antenna is also required (2- to 3-m diameter) in order
to maintain a good signal-to-noise ratio at all the indoor units.
Cont..
Community Antenna TV System

• The CATV system employs a single outdoor unit, with separate feeds.
• like the MATV system, so that all channels are made available
simultaneously at the indoor receiver. Instead of having a separate
receiver for each user, all the carriers are demodulated in a common
receiver-filter system, as shown in below. The channels are then
combined into a standard multiplexed signal for transmission over
cable to the subscribers.
• With the CATV system, local programming material also may be
distributed to subscribers, an option which is not permitted in the
MATV system.
Cont..
Transmit-Receive Earth Stations

• In the previous sections, receive-only TV stations are described.

Obviously, somewhere a transmit station must complete the uplink to
the satellite. In some situations, a transmit-only station is required,
for example, in relaying TV signals to the remote TVRO stations
already described.
• Transmit-receive stations provide both functions and are required for
telecommunications traffic generally, including network TV.
• Referring again to the block diagram , after passing through the up
converters, the carriers are combined, and the resulting wideband
signal is amplified.
Cont..

• The wideband power signal is fed to the antenna through a diplexer,

which allows the antenna to handle transmit and receive signals
simultaneously.
• The station’s antenna functions in both, the transmit and receive
modes, but at different frequencies. In the C band, the nominal
uplink, or transmit, frequency is 6 GHz and the downlink, or receive,
frequency is nominally 4 GHz. In the Ku band, the uplink frequency is
nominally 14 GHz, and the downlink, 12 GHz.
• High-gain antennas are employed in both bands.
Cont..
Satellite Antennas

• It is classified into four types: 1.Wire Antennas: Monopole & Dipole

2.Horn Antennas 3.Reflector Antennas 4. Array Antennas
Wire Antennas
• These are used primarily at VHF & UHF to provide communications
for the TTC&M systems.
• They are positioned with great care on the body of the satellite in an
attempt to provide omnidirectional coverage.
• An antenna pattern is a plot of the field strength in far field on
antenna. It is usually measured in decibels (dB).
Wire antenna pattern
Horn Antennas

• These are used at microwave frequencies when relatively wide beams

are required, as for global coverage.
• A horn is a flared section of waveguide that provides an aperture
several wavelengths wide and a good match between the waveguide
impedance and free space.
• Horns are also used as feeds for reflectors
Horn Antenna types
Reflector Antennas

• The most often used antenna for satellite systems, particularly for
those operating above 10 GHz, is the parabolic reflector antenna.
• These are usually illuminated by one or more horns and provide a
lager aperture compared to horn antenna.
• Parabolic reflectors offer a much higher gain than that achievable by
the horn antenna alone.
Cont..
Array Antennas

• Array antennas are also used on satellites to create multiple beams

from a single aperture.

• Multiple beams are formed by combining the radiation from several

small elements made up of dipoles, horns etc.

• Iridium and Global star used these kind of antennas to generate up

to 16 beams from a single aperture for their LEO mobile telephone
systems.