SPACENET: On-Orbit Support in 2025
Abstract
In 2025, on-orbit support will be vital to employing space assets as an instrument of national power. Four areas of on-orbit support need to be developed over the next three decades to ensure that the US maintains space dominance. These four key areas together form the Spacenet 2025 system. This paper examines these four areas in the context of supporting space assets. First, support to the war fighters will be the priority of the military space program. The theater commander requires reliable, timely support from space to utilize all war fighting assets. This space support includes communications, navigation, weather, missile launch warning, and data transfer. Although intelligence is not addressed in this report, on-orbit support provides sufficient processing, storage, and transmission capability to fully support the intelligence architecture. Second, the satellite command, control, and communication (C3) system must be responsive enough to position satellites in the correct orbits to support the theater commander. This requires: C3 systems to control satellites over the horizon from the ground control station; automatic, redundant switching to ensure that a particular satellite receives the correct commands; and flexible, secure, and mobile ground stations. Satellite autonomy is the ultimate goal, however, when required, ground control is minimized. Third, satellite design is critical. Improved design lowers cost, increases flexibility, and enhances survivability. Key design considerations include satellite size, longevity, power and propulsion requirements, radiation hardened electronics, satellite autonomy, and satellite disposal. Finally, space assets must be survivable in a hostile space environment and immediately replaceable if destroyed. Satellite security employs both passive and active defenses to counter manmade and environmental threats such as spa
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA331992
Entities
People
- Bill Bradley
- Carl Block
- Phil Simonsen
- Rich Chavez
- Tim Zadalis
Organizations
- Air War College