Mars network for enabling low-cost missions
Mars is the first planet where significant steps are being taken to establish a “virtual presence throughout the solar system”—one of NASA's strategic goals. Preparations are under way to begin implementation of an evolving Mars Network of satellites to meet the future communications and naviga...
Gespeichert in:
Veröffentlicht in: | Acta astronautica 2003, Vol.52 (2), p.227-235 |
---|---|
Hauptverfasser: | , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Artikel |
Sprache: | eng |
Online-Zugang: | Volltext |
Tags: |
Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
|
Zusammenfassung: | Mars is the first planet where significant steps are being taken to establish a “virtual presence throughout the solar system”—one of NASA's strategic goals. Preparations are under way to begin implementation of an evolving Mars Network of satellites to meet the future communications and navigation challenges of the ongoing international Mars exploration campaign. The Mars Network concept is to deploy two classes of satellites. The first class is very low-cost MicroSats, launched piggyback on Ariane 5, for deployment in 800-km circular orbits in a variety of planes for frequent global contacts. From their low orbits, the MicroSats provide highly efficient relay communication links for small, energy constrained landers, and their orbital motion provides strong navigation signatures. The second, larger class of Mars areostationary satellites (MARSats) are deployed in 17,000-km orbits with 1-sol periods, as required, to support very high bandwidth users. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 0094-5765 1879-2030 |
DOI: | 10.1016/S0094-5765(02)00161-3 |