ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY SATELLITE (ACTS) - DESIGN AND ON-ORBIT PERFORMANCE-MEASUREMENTS

The advanced communications technology satellite (ACTS), developed and built by Lockheed Martin Astro Space for the NASA Lewis Research Cent er, was launched in September 1993 on the Shuttle STS 51 mission. ACTS is a digital experimental communications test bed that incorporates g igahertz bandwidth transponders operating at Ka band, hopping spot bea ms, on-board storage and switching and dynamic rain fade compensation. This paper describes the ACTS enabling technologies, the design of th e communications payload, the constraints imposed on the spacecraft bu s, and the measurements conducted to verify the performance of the sys tem in orbit.