Terrestrial radio station for communication with spacecraft
Parkes Observatory
pointing toward the
Moon
, receiving data from
Apollo 11
mission back to Earth
A
ground station
,
Earth station
, or
Earth terminal
is a terrestrial
radio station
designed for extraplanetary
telecommunication
with
spacecraft
(constituting part of the
ground segment
of the spacecraft system), or reception of
radio waves
from
astronomical radio sources
. Ground stations may be located either on the surface of the
Earth
, or in its atmosphere.
[1]
Earth stations communicate with spacecraft by transmitting and receiving radio waves in the
super high frequency
(SHF) or
extremely high frequency
(EHF)
bands
(e.g.
microwaves
). When a ground station successfully transmits radio waves to a spacecraft (or vice versa), it establishes a
telecommunications link
. A principal telecommunications device of the ground station is the
parabolic antenna
.
Ground stations may have either a fixed or itinerant position. Article 1 § III of the
International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) Radio Regulations describes various types of stationary and mobile ground stations, and their interrelationships.
[2]
Specialized
satellite Earth stations
or
satellite tracking stations
are used to telecommunicate with
satellites
? chiefly
communications satellites
. Other ground stations communicate with crewed
space stations
or uncrewed
space probes
. A ground station that primarily receives
telemetry
data, or that follows space missions, or satellites not in
geostationary orbit
, is called a
ground tracking station
, or
space tracking station
, or simply a
tracking station
.
When a spacecraft or satellite is within a ground station's line of sight, the station is said to have a
view
of the spacecraft (see
pass
). A spacecraft can communicate with more than one ground station at a time. A pair of ground stations are said to have a spacecraft in
mutual view
when the stations share simultaneous, unobstructed,
line-of-sight contact
with the spacecraft.
[3]
Telecommunications port
[
edit
]
A
telecommunications port
? or, more commonly,
teleport
? is a satellite ground station that functions as a hub connecting a satellite or
geocentric orbital
network with a terrestrial
telecommunications network
, such as the
Internet
.
Teleports may provide various
broadcasting
services among other telecommunications functions,
[4]
such as
uploading
computer programs
or issuing
commands
over an
uplink
to a satellite.
[5]
In May 1984, the Dallas/Fort Worth Teleport became the first American teleport to commence operation.
[
citation needed
]
Earth terminal complexes
[
edit
]
A
Tier-1
satellite dish
(manufactured by
Level 3 Communications
) in
Boise, Idaho
In
Federal Standard 1037C
, the United States
General Services Administration
defined an
Earth terminal complex
as the assemblage of equipment and facilities necessary to integrate an Earth terminal (ground station) into a telecommunications network.
[6]
[7]
FS-1037C has since been subsumed by the ATIS Telecom Glossary, which is maintained by the
Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions
(ATIS), an international, business-oriented,
non-governmental organization
. The
Telecommunications Industry Association
also acknowledges this definition.
Satellite communications standards
[
edit
]
The
ITU Radiocommunication Sector
(ITU-R), a division of the
International Telecommunication Union
, codifies international standards agreed-upon through multinational discourse. From 1927 to 1932, the
International Consultative Committee for Radio
administered standards and regulations now governed by the ITU-R.
In addition to the body of standards defined by the ITU-R, each major satellite operator provides technical requirements and standards that ground stations must meet in order to communicate with the operator's satellites. For example,
Intelsat
publishes the Intelsat Earth Station Standards (IESS) which, among other things, classifies ground stations by the capabilities of their parabolic antennas, and pre-approves certain antenna models.
[8]
Eutelsat
publishes similar standards and requirements, such as the Eutelsat Earth Station Standards (EESS).
[9]
[10]
The Interagency Operations Advisory Group offers a Service Catalog describing standard services,
[11]
Spacecraft Emergency Cross Support Standard, and
Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems
data standards.
The Teleport (originally called a
Telecommunications Satellite Park
) innovation was conceived and developed by Joseph Milano in 1976 as part of a
National Research Council
study entitled,
Telecommunications for Metropolitan Areas: Near-Term Needs and Opportunities".
Networks
[
edit
]
A network of ground stations is a group of stations located to support spacecraft communication, tracking, or both. A network is established to provide dedicated support to a specific mission, function, program or organization.
[12]
Ground station networks include:
Other historical networks have included:
Major Earth stations and Earth terminal complexes
[
edit
]
- Bukit Timah Satellite Earth Station
, Singapore
- Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex
, Australia
- Esrange Space Center
, Sweden
- Fucino Space Centre
, Italy
- Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex
, California, U.S.
- Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station
, UK
- Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station
(closed), Australia
- Jamesburg Earth Station
(abandoned), California, U.S.
- Kaena Point Satellite Tracking Station
, Hawaii, U.S.
- Madley Communications Centre
, UK
- Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex
, Spain
- Makarios Earth Station
, Cyprus
- Malargue Station
, Argentina
- New Norcia Station
, Australia
- Suparco Satellite Center
, Pakistan
- Svalbard Satellite Station
, Norway
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Federal Standard 1037C - Earth Station"
. General Services Administration. 1996
. Retrieved
23 April
2009
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
"ITU Radio Regulations ? Article 1, Definitions of Radio Services"
. International Telecommunication Union. Archived from
the original
on 30 April 2009
. Retrieved
23 April
2009
.
- ^
Underkoffler, C.; Webster, A.; Colombo, A., eds. (2007).
"ATIS Telecom Glossary - View"
. Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions. Archived from
the original
on 6 June 2011
. Retrieved
22 April
2009
.
- ^
"Glossary"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 16 July 2011
. Retrieved
25 April
2009
.
- ^
"Satellite Teleport"
. Archived from
the original
on 5 March 2009
. Retrieved
25 April
2009
.
- ^
"Federal Standard 1037C - Earth terminal complex"
. General Services Administration. 1996
. Retrieved
22 April
2009
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
Underkoffler, C.; Webster, A.; Colombo, A., eds. (2007).
"ATIS Telecom Glossary - Earth terminal complex"
. Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions. Archived from
the original
on 10 July 2010
. Retrieved
22 April
2009
.
- ^
"Intelsat Earth Station Standards (IESS) ? Document IESS?207 (Rev. 4)"
(PDF)
. Eutelsat. 10 May 2005. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 17 October 2006
. Retrieved
22 April
2009
.
- ^
"Earth Station Minimum Technical and Operational Requirements (Standard M, EESS 502 Issue 11 Rev. 1)"
. Eutelsat. Archived from
the original
on 28 February 2009
. Retrieved
22 April
2009
.
- ^
"Eutelsat Approved Equipment"
. Eutelsat. Archived from
the original
on 17 November 2008
. Retrieved
22 April
2009
.
- ^
Service Catalog
IOAG.org
- ^
Gnat, Marcin (2022).
"Ground Station Network"
.
Spacecraft Operations
. Springer Aerospace Technology. pp. 181?196.
doi
:
10.1007/978-3-030-88593-9_10
.
ISBN
978-3-030-88592-2
.
- ^
SKY Perfect JSAT and KSAT to jointly provide ground station services to JAXA
Arctic Business Journal
, 2023
- ^
NorthBase joins RBC Signals Network for global cooperation
SatNews
, 2023/12/13
- ^
Vernile, Alessandra (2018)
The Rise of Private Actors in the Space Sector
Springer
ISBN
9783319738024
pg 68
- ^
Henry, Caleb (2020)
AWS completes six ground stations, changes rollout strategy
SpaceNews
- ^
R. Sante, J. Bhosale, S. Bhosle, P. Jangam et al (2023)
Design and Development of Automated Groundstation System for Beliefsat-1
Proceedings of the International Conference on Paradigms of Computing, Communication and Data Sciences
- ^
Dunnell, C.A. (1967)
TRANET Doppler Tracking System
APL
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