B. Tech.

ECE Sem-VII
Subject: Radar and Satellite Communication.
Unit-II: Satellite subsystems

Prof: S. V. Dhole

Topic: Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS)

Attitude and orbit control system is used to control the orbit of the satellite, besides helping to
maintain stabilization and its position. The control can be affected by the satellite itself and from
the ground. Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS) consists of four major parts:

1. Sensors
2. Propulsion system
3. Attitude control
4. Orbit control

Forces Acting on a Satellite

There are a number of forces working on a satellite which tend to change attitude and orbit of a
satellite beyond the permissible limit. These forces are :

1. Asymmetry of the earth’s gravitational field: Earth is not a true sphere. It is bulging at
the equator by about 65 km at the longitudes of 165oE and 15oW. This causes an
acceleration and hence for accurate positioning, the satellite must be accelerated in the
opposite direction by firing the rocket motors called thrusters at appropriate intervals.
Earth is flattered at the poles by about 20 km but this has little effect on a geostationary
satellite.
2. Gravitation due to sun, planets and moon: They set up rotational moments if the
satellite is not perfectly balanced. Moon being the nearest heavy mass, has maximum
effect.
3. Pressure due to solar radiation: It can also change orientation (spin-axis) of the satellite.
4. Magnetic field of the earth: It can exert forces on the satellite if a net magnetic moment
is present, thus affecting its velocity and orientation.

Need of Attitude and Orbit Control

Change in the spin axis of the satellite will cause pointing error between the satellites antenna
and the earth station’s antenna. This will reduce the signal at the receiving side and will degrade
C/N ratio. Hence the need of maintenance of correct attitude. As the extra forces can change
velocity of the satellite and therefore angle of inclination of the orbital plane with respect to the
equitorial plane, the satellite will become non-geostationary. This will require steering of the
earth station antenna to get the best signal from the satellite. Thus correct attitude and correct
orbit are essential requirements for the optimized performance of the satellite links.

Sensors
For attitude control, two types of sensors are used in the satellite:

1. Earth sensor
2. Sun sensor

Earth Sensor
It is a passive infrared device, operating in 14-16 µm wavelength. It senses the infrared rays
coming from around the horizon. There is a sharp temperature difference between the space and
the earth’s horizon, as space is cool and earth is warm. Two earth sensors are used, positioned 5°
north and 5° south of the spin axis. When the spin axis of the satellite is correctly maintained the
output of north and south sensors are in phase, otherwise they are out of phase. The phase
difference pulses are sent to the earth station and they measure earth aspect angle.

Sun Sensors
It has a fan shaped field of view. It operates in the visible spectrum and uses a photocell for
detecting solar radiations. There are two solar sensors, one parallel to the spin axis and the other
canted 35°. Pulses from the sun sensors are sent to the earth station to determine solar aspect
angle.

Data from the earth and sun sensors is analyzed and orientation of the satellite is accurately
determined by the computers at the earth’s station. Command are generated and sent to the
satellite to fire the rocket motor for correcting the axis.

Propulsion System
It is the reaction control system carried by the satellite in the geostationary orbit so as to generate
forces on it whenever required. The reaction control system has a supply of fuel and it helps the
satellite to move, to its assigned position in orbit, to maintain it in that position and to maintain
the direction of spin axis attitude control in the case of forces that perturb it. Usually a propulsion
system consists of 3 units:

1. Low thrust actuators: Devoted to attitude and orbit corrections that provide an annual
velocity increment of the order of 50 m/s.
2. High thrust motor: Which provides the velocity increment required for the geostationary
orbit injection at the transfer orbit apogee.
3. With space shuttle launched satellites: It provides the velocity increment required to
inject the satellite into the transfer orbit.
Out of these three propulsion units the low thrust actuators are of much importance for
geostationary orbit because it is responsible for keeping the satellite in its orbit with its perfect
attitude till its life end. The low thrust actuators can be either chemical ones or
the electrical ones.

The chemical thrusters have a thrust level of between 0.5 N and few 10000 N. In chemical
thrusters gases are generated at high temperatures by chermeal reaction of propellents which may
be either solid or liquid. The gases are then accelerated by a nozzle.

The electric thrusters produce a thrust only in between 2 and 10 mN. They provide thrust by
accelerating ionized mass in an electromagnetic or electrostatic field. In communication satellites
chemical thrusters are used.

Attitude Control System

The attitude control of a spacecraft is necessary so the antennas must be pointed correctly at the
earth. Gravitational forces from the sun, moon and planets will setup rotational moments when
the spacecraft is not perfectly balanced. These are carried out by control loops based on error
detection and decision systems as shown in figure below.

Control scheme
They use the telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) subsystems for information exchange
between satellite and earth. The attitude control may be:

 Passive
 Active
In passive attitude control the required attitude corresponds to a position of a satellite, while
for active attitude control the satellite is unstable or sufficiently stable within the desired
attitude configurations. Mainly four oprations are requered for this:

1. Detection of the satellite attitude

2. Comparison with the reference axis
3. Determination of the corrective torque.
4. Correction of the altitude by actuators mounted on the satellite.

Any spacecraft is governed using three axis:

 Yaw
 Roll
 Pitch

Satellite Stabilization
In order to control the attitude in space. the satellite has to be propely oriented using momentum
wheels and thruster motors in these three axis. The two major methods used are:

 Spin stabilization.
 Three axis body stabilization.

Spin Stabilization
It is the most commonly employed method where the entire spacecraft is rotated at 30 to 100
rotations per minute. This spin provides a powerful gyroscopic action to maintain the spin axis in
the correct direction. Such satellites consist of cylindrical drum covered by solar cells and the
rocket motors. The transponder is mounted on the top of the drum. It is driven by an electric
motor in the appropriate direction tothat of the drum, so that the antennas remain pointing
towards the earth. This opposite motion is called despun. The despun section is kept stationary
by counter rotation provided is by small gas jets mounted on the periphery of the drum. Figure
shows the spin stabilization in the geostationary orbit. Spin stabilized satellites are mainly the
communication satellites.
Three Axis Body Stabilization
On the other hand, a satellite can rotate about the three axis termed as yaw, roll and pitch axis.
When a statellite is stabilized about these axis, it is called three axis body stabilization.

In this method, stability is achieved by mounting three momentum wheels on three mutually
perpendicular axis as shown in the figure below.

A momentum wheel is a high speed wheel driven by a motor. It is kept in a sealed evaluated
chamber. Increase in its speed increases the angular momentum. Change in the attitude are
transmitted to the earth station by telemetring the data from the sensors. The data is analysed and
commands are sent to the satellite to increase or decrease the speed of the momentum wheels as
per requirement to correct the attitude about its three aixs: role axis (the orbital plane), pitch axis
(normal to the orbital plane) and yaw axis (the local vertical plane facing the earth station).
Antennas are mounted on the satellites surface facing the earth.
Orbit Control System
A GEO satellite is subjected to several forces that tend to accelerate it away from its required
orbit. It is the function of the orbit control system to return it to its correct orbit.

For orbit control, sensors are used in the satellite to measure linear acceleration (momentum
mentum wheels cannot be used for this control because they cause rotational torques), changes in
velocity, sensed by the velocity sensors, are transmitted to the earth’s controlling station. These
changes are analysed and, appropriate commands are generated and sent to the satellite for
correcting the velocity. To correct change in the inclination angle (i), change of velocity at right
angles to the orbital plane is needed. This correction requires more fule than for any other
correction. A typical satellite weighing 1000 kg may need 30 kg of fuel to maintain inclination
within ±0.1°. This puts a penality by reduction in the communication payload and therefore
reduction in satellite’s capacity. Hence in most of the satellite systems, inclination control is not
used. Instead, the satellite is launched with an initial inclination of about 3°. It will be reduced by
0.85° per year due to forces working on the satellite. Thus after three or four years, the orbit
would be in the equatorial plane. With earth stations having steerable antennas, drift in
inclination can be managed by proper tracking, and saving in fuel can be used to carry more
transponders.

B. Tech. ECE Sem-VII

Subject: Radar and Satellite Communication.
Prof: S. V. Dhole

Topic: 2 Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) Subsystem

The tracking, telemetry, and command (TT&C) subsystem monitor and controls the satellite
right from the lift-off stage to the end of its operational life in space. The tracking part of the
subsystem determines the position of the spacecraft and follows its travel using angle, range, and
velocity information. The telemetry part gathers information on the health of various subsystems
of the satellite. It encodes this information and then transmits the same towards the Earth control
center. The command element receives and executes remote control commands from the control
center on Earth to effect changes to the platform functions, configuration, position, and velocity.

The TT&C subsystem is therefore very important, not only during orbital injection and the
positioning phase but also throughout the operational life of the satellite.

Data received from the satellite about status of attitude, orbit and other parameters, is processed
at the ground station. Telemetry, tracking and command subsystem is a part of satellite
management task and it involves an earth station. The main functions of the TT&C subsystems
are:

1. Measurement of angle and range for the localization of the satellite.

2. Transmission of housekeeping information.
3. Status of satellite to the ground control station.
4. Receiving command signals for station keeping operations of equipments.
5.

Fig: Block Diagram of Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) Subsystem

Telemetry
Telemetry system collects the the data from many sensors and sends this data to the controlling
earth station. The sensors are mounted on the satellite and they monitor:

 The pressure in fuel tank.

 Voltage and currents in the power conditioning unit.
 Current drawn by each subsystem.
 Critical voltage and currents in the communication electronics.
 Temperature of other subsystems.
  Position of switches and attitude.

Typically 100 sensors are required to monitor these data When the satellite is in transfer orbit,
the telemeter transmitter is connected to a TWTA in the satellite repeater. The telemetry data is
digitized in nature and transmitted as frequency or phase shift keying (FSK or PSK) of a low
power telemetry carrier using time division techniques.

Fig: Block Diagram of Telemetry system

To maintain a high carrier to noise ratio and narrow bandwidth, a low data rate is used to allow
the receiver at the earth station. The entire TDM frame can take several seconds to transmits
thousands of bits of data. The controlling earth station uses a computer to monitor, store and
decode the telemetry data so that the status of any system or sensor on the spacecraft can be
determined. Alarms can also be used if any parameter goes outside the allowable limits.

Tracking or Ranging
It determines the slant range for accurate determination of satellite orbit. It can be done in two
ways:

1. By transmitting a command carrier modulated by multiple tones from the earth station to
the satellite. The carrier is received by the command receiver in the satellite, demodulated
and then goes to the teletnetry or beacon transmitter for retransmission to the earth, where
the phase difference of the received signal is measured with respect to the transmitted
signal.
2. Velocity and acceleration sensors can be used in the satellite to sense the change in the
orbit. This data can be sent to the earth station through telemetry, where commands are
generated and sent to the satellite for orbit correction.

Command Subsystem
For common operation the satellite contains a receiver which works only for command signal
transmitted from the TTC earth station. By this command subsystem controls the satellite
operation by receiving and decoding command from the TTC earth station. The communication
antenna is used for command and ranging when the satellite is in synchronous orbit and, during
the satellites position in transfer orbit the omnidirectional antenna is used for command and
ranging.

During the injection of satellite into geostationary orbit a back up system is used which provides:

 The control of apogee boost motors.

 Attitude control systems.
 Orbit control thrusters.

This back up system works with omnidirectional antenna at either UHF or S-band (2-4 GHz) and
sufficient margin is required in the signal to noise ratio (S/N) at the satellite receiver. In case of
failure of main TT&C system. the back up system canbe used to keep the satellite on station. It is
also used to enject the spacecraft from geostatiortary orbit and to switch off all transmitters,
when it reaches the end of its useful life.

Fig: Block diagram of Command Subsystem

 Decoder reproduce command messages and produce lock/enable and clock signals.
 Command logic validates the command.
 Default is to reject if any uncertainty of validity.
 Drives appropriate interface circuitry.
 Command decoder detect PCM encoding and outputs binary stream in non-return to zero
format. It activates downstream command subsystem components.
 The function of Interface circuitry are latching relays with teletales, pulse commands,
level commands and, serial and parallel data commands.

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B. Tech. ECE Sem-VII

Subject: Radar and Satellite Communication.
Prof: S. V. Dhole

Topic: 3 Altitude Control Subsystem

Altitude control subsystem takes care of the orientation of satellite in its respective orbit.
Following are the two methods to make the satellite that is present in an orbit as stable.

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.

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.
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.

Three Axis Method

In this method, we can stabilize the satellite by using one or more momentum wheels. This
method is called as three-axis method. The advantage of this method is that the orientation of
the satellite in three axes will be controlled and no need of rotating satellite’s main body.
In this method, the following three axes are considered.
 Roll axis is considered in the direction in which the satellite moves in orbital plane.
 Yaw axis is considered in the direction towards earth.
 Pitch axis is considered in the direction, which is perpendicular to orbital plane.
These three axes are shown in below figure.
Let XR, YR and ZR are the roll axis, yaw axis and pitch axis respectively. These three axis are
defined by considering the satellite’s position as reference. These three axes define the altitude
of satellite.

Let X, Y and Z are another set of Cartesian axes. This set of three axis provides the information
about orientation of the satellite with respect to reference axes. If there is a change in altitude of
the satellite, then the angles between the respective axes will be changed.

In this method, each axis contains two gas jets. They will provide the rotation in both directions
of the three axes.

 The first gas jet will be operated for some period of time, when there is a requirement of
satellite’s motion in a particular axis direction.
 The second gas jet will be operated for same period of time, when the satellite reaches to
the desired position. So, the second gas jet will stop the motion of satellite in that axis
direction.

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 B. Tech. ECE Sem-VII
Subject: Radar and Satellite Communication.
Prof: S. V. Dhole

Topic: Power Systems:

We know that the satellite present in an orbit should be operated continuously during its life
span. So, the satellite requires internal power in order to operate various electronic systems and
communications payload that are present in it.

Power system is a vital subsystem, which provides the power required for working of a satellite.
Mainly, the solar cells (or panels) and rechargeable batteries are used in these systems.

Solar Cells

Basically, the solar cells produce electrical power (current) from incident sunlight. Therefore,
solar cells are used primarily in order to provide power to other subsystems of satellite.

We know that individual solar cells generate very less power. So, in order to generate more
power, group of cells that are present in an array form can be used.

Solar Arrays

There are two types of solar arrays that are used in satellites. Those are cylindrical solar arrays
and rectangular solar arrays or solar sail.

 Cylindrical solar arrays are used in spinning satellites. Only part of the cylindrical array
will be covered under sunshine at any given time. Due to this, electric power gets
generated from the partial solar array. This is the drawback of this type.
 The drawback of cylindrical solar arrays is overcome with Solar sail. This one produce
more power because all solar cells of solar sail are exposed to sun light.

Rechargeable Batteries

During eclipses time, it is difficult to get the power from sun light. So, in that situation the other
subsystems get the power from rechargeable batteries. These batteries produce power to other
subsystems during launching of satellite also.

In general, these batteries charge due to excess current, which is generated by solar cells in the
presence of sun light.

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 B. Tech. ECE Sem-VII
Subject: Radar and Satellite Communication.
Prof: S. V. Dhole

Topic: Antenna Subsystems

Antennas are present in both satellite and earth station. Now, let us discuss about the satellite
antennas.

Satellite antennas perform two types of functions. Those are receiving of signals, which are
coming from earth station and transmitting signals to one or more earth stations based on the
requirement. In other words, the satellite antennas receive uplink signals and transmit downlink
signals.

We know that the length of satellite antennas is inversely proportional to the operating
frequency. The operating frequency has to be increased in order to reduce the length of satellite
antennas. Therefore, satellite antennas operate in the order of GHz frequencies.

Satellite Antennas

The antennas, which are used in satellite are known as satellite antennas. There are mainly
four types of Antennas. They are:

 Wire Antennas
 Horn Antennas
 Array Antennas
 Reflector Antennas

Now, let us discuss about these antennas one by one.

Wire Antennas
 Fig: Wire Antenna

Wire antennas are the basic antennas. Mono pole and dipole antennas come under
this category. These are used in very high frequencies in order to provide the
communication for TTCM subsystem.
The length of the total wire, which is being used as a dipole, if equals half of the
wave length (i.e., l = λ/2), such an antenna is called as half-wave dipole antenna.
Wire antennas are suitable for covering its range of access and to provide signal
strength in all directions. That means, wire antennas are Omni-directional
antennas.

Horn Antennas

An Antenna with an aperture at the end can be termed as an Aperture antenna.

The edge of a transmission line when terminated with an opening, radiates energy.
This opening which is an aperture, makes it as an aperture antenna.
Horn antenna is an example of aperture antenna. It is used in satellites in order to
cover more area on earth.
Horn antennas are used in microwave frequency range. The same feed horn can be
used for both transmitting and receiving the signals. A device named duplexer,
which separates these two signals.

Array Antennas

An antenna when individually can radiate an amount of energy, in a particular

direction, resulting in better transmission, how it would be if few more elements
are added it, to produce more efficient output. It is exactly this idea, which lead to
the invention of Array Antennas or Antenna arrays. Array antennas are used in
satellites to form multiple beams from single aperture.

Reflector antennas are suitable for producing beams, which have more signal
strength in one particular direction. That means, these are highly directional
antennas. So, Parabolic reflectors increase the gain of antennas in satellite
communication system. Hence, these are used in telecommunications and
broadcasting.
If a Parabolic Reflector antenna is used for transmitting a signal, the signal from
the feed, comes out of a dipole or a horn antenna, to focus the wave on to the
parabola. It means that, the waves come out of the focal point and strikes the
Paraboloidal reflector. This wave now gets reflected as collimated wave front.

If the same antenna is used as a receiver, the electromagnetic wave when hits the
shape of the parabola, the wave gets reflected onto the feed point. The dipole or the
horn antenna, which acts as the receiver antenna at its feed, receives this signal, to
convert it into electric signal and forwards it to the receiver circuitry.

B. Tech. ECE Sem-VII

Subject: Radar and Satellite Communication.
Prof: S. V. Dhole

Topic: Orbital Perturbations

Following are the orbital perturbations due to gravitational and non-gravitational

forces or parameters.

 Irregular gravitational force around the Earth due to non-uniform mass

distribution. Earth’s magnetic field too causes orbital perturbations.
 Main external perturbations come from Sun and Moon. When a satellite is
near to these external bodies, it receives a stronger gravitational pull.
 Low-orbit satellites get affected due to friction caused by collision with
atoms and ions.
  Solar radiation pressure affects large GEO satellites, which use large solar
arrays.
 Self-generated torques and pressures caused by RF radiation from the
antenna.
Most satellites use a propulsion subsystem in order to maintain a proper spin axis
direction and control the altitude of the satellite against perturbation forces.
==================================
B. Tech. ECE Sem-VII
Subject: Radar and Satellite Communication.
Prof: S. V. Dhole

Topic: Satellite Communication – Subsystems:

In satellite communication system, various operations take place. Among which,

the main operations are orbit controlling, altitude of satellite, monitoring and
controlling of other subsystems.

A satellite communication consists of mainly two segments. Those are space

segment and earth segment. So, accordingly there will be two types of subsystems
namely, space segment subsystems and earth segment subsystems. The
following figure illustrates this concept.
As shown in the figure, the communication takes place between space segment
subsystems and earth segment subsystems through communication links.

Space Segment Subsystems

The subsystems present in space segment are called as space segment subsystems.
Following are the space segment subsystems.

 AOC Subsystem
 TTCM Subsystem
 Power and Antenna Subsystems
 Transponders

Earth Segment Subsystems

The subsystems present in the ground segment have the ability to access the
satellite repeater in order to provide the communication between the users. Earth
segment is also called as ground segment.
Earth segment performs mainly two functions. Those are transmission of a signal
to the satellite and reception of signal from the satellite. Earth stations are the
major subsystems that are present in earth segment.

We will discuss about all these subsystems of space segment and earth segment in
following chapters.

=======================================

Applications of Satellite Communication

Satellite communication plays a vital role in our daily life. Following are the applications of
satellite communication −

 Radio broadcasting and voice communications

 TV broadcasting such as Direct To Home (DTH)
 Internet applications such as providing Internet connection for data transfer, GPS
applications, Internet surfing, etc.
 Military applications and navigations
 Remote sensing applications
 Weather condition monitoring & Forecasting

Unit-I
Comparison Between LEO, MEO, and GEO

Parameter LEO MEO GEO

Distance from 100 miles to 300 6000 miles to 12,000
19,000 miles to 25,000 miles
earth miles miles

Rotation
1.5 hours 5 to 12 hours 24 hours
period

Numbers of
satellites 30 to 60 10 to 20 3 to 6
required

Life time 5 years 10 to 15 years 10 to 15 years

Launching Low cost for each Moderate cost for each

High cost for each satellite
cost satellite satellite

Small, therefore Large area, therefore less Much large area, therefore
Coverage area hundreds of ground number of ground small number of ground
stations are required stations are required stations are required

Line of sight
0.5 hours 2 to 4 hours 24 hours
time

Frequency day-night
Infrequent day-night Infrequent day-night cycle.
cycle. Satellite
Ellipse interval cycle. Satellite remains in Satellite remains in darkness
remains in darkness
darkness 2% of time 1-2% of time
30% of time

Elevation Rapidly varying Slowly varying elevation No variation in elevation

angle variation elevation angle angle angle

Tracking Slow speed tracking Slow speed tracking Tracking is not required
Travelling
17,500 mph 10,000 mph 6,879 mph
speed

Telephony, data/TV
Communication and distribution,mobile
Application Weather forecasting
navigation purpose communication,
broadcasting