PACSAT: A Passive Communication Satellite for Survivable Command and Control

Abstract

Examines passive comsats as alternatives to active comsats in the hostile environment that may exist in the postattack period of a nuclear war. Inexpensive, survivable, and jam resistant, they offer an attractive low-data- rate capability. PACSAT is a proliferable candidate for this role. It consists of a long (about 1 km), gravity-gradient-stabilized array of small beads (about 1 cm in diameter) that reflects a narrow, conical, frequency-steerable beam back to the earth. The properties of PACSAT are presented and its performance in a representative system for the command and control of MX is evaluated.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1981
Accession Number
ADA112414

Entities

People

  • Edward Bedrosian

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Altitude
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Bandwidth
  • Command And Control
  • Command And Control Systems
  • Communication Satellites
  • Communication Systems
  • Data Rate
  • Data Transmission Systems
  • Earth Orbits
  • Equatorial Orbits
  • Frequency Bands
  • Near Field
  • Radio Equipment
  • Satellite Communications
  • Scattering
  • Space Communications

Readers

  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Tactical Satellite Communications Systems Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control
  • Space
  • Space - Satellites