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ACTS Technology Description and Results

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ACTS Technology Description and Results NASA / CR--2000-209806 ACTS_Technology Description and Results Richard T. Gedney and Ronald Schertler ACT Company, Westlake, Ohio Frank Gargione Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space, Newtown, Pennsylvania Prepared under Contract NAS3-23790 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Glenn Research Center February 2000 Available from NASA Center for Aerospace Information National Technical Information Service 7121 Standard Drive 5285 Port Royal Road Hanover, MD 21076 Springfield, VA 22100 Price Code: A08 Price Code: A08 Contents Introduction vii 1. Program Formulation 2. Satellite Technology 13 3. Terminal Equipment 41 4. User Trails 61 5, Ka-Band Propagation Effects 89 6. The ACTS Development 101 7. Market Forecast in Shaping Technology Investment 119 8. ACTS Successors 129 9. Acronym List 135 10. References 141 V Introduction Active federal participation in the development as well as the encouragement of techno- logical innovation has existed for a long time in the US. For example, in 1836 Congress appropriated $30,000 to subsidize Samuel Morse's first telegraph, an experimental line from Washington, DC to Baltimore. Government programs have differed in the extent to which they blend three conceptually distinct purposes: contffouting basic research from which new technologies will be born, advancing technology for which government is the customer, and developing technology for use by the private sector. There have been many successes and failures in all three categories, but perhaps the third category is the most difficult for government to sponsor. This is because the success of a program for commercial benefit depends on acceptance in the market place. It is difficult enough for the private sector to predict useful technology for future, uncertain markets, but it is even more difficult for public decision makers who are usually less skilled at fore- casting commercial markets than their private sector counterparts. Secondly, the govern- ment support of R & D for commercial application involves industrial policy, which is normally highly controversial. A key issue in the debate is whether or not the government is likely to do more harm than good in sponsoring technology development. The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) program is a government program of the third category, and this report is a case study of that type of sponsored re- search. ACTS was strongly debated over a ten-year period from 1983 to 1993. Both its advocates and adversaries spent a great amount of time and energy expressing their opin- ions and taking action to influence the program as it was conducted. For five years the administration adversaries succeeded in keeping ACTS out of NASA's budget request to Congress, and for those same five years, the congressional advocates restored the ACTS budget. The difference in philosophy and political rhetoric was as great as for any federal program. This contractor report sheds some light on the core policy issues, the difficulties in exe- cuting programs with continual public policy disagreement, the usefulness of the devel- oped technology to the private sector and the lessons learned. The authors were all closely associated with the program and have to be considered advocates. However, we have made a deliberate attempt to present both sides of the program and to make the ma- terial as factual as we know how. The first chapter discusses the formulation of the program, its objectives, a brief descrip- tion of the technology, the advocate and adversary viewpoints, and the contractual proc- ess. Chapters 2 and 3 provide a detailed description of the satellite and earth station tech- nology and a technical assessment of the technology based on on-orbit results. Chapter 4 presents the applicability of the technology based on the results of user trials. Chapter 5 outlines the ACTS Ka-band propagation campaign and provides quantitative 30/20 GHz vii rain fadepropagationmeasurementsandpresentssomemethodsfor mitigating the large fades. Because of the continual controversy surrounding ACTS, the program execution was se- verely impacted. The difficulties imposed by this controversy as well as those due to tech- nical and managerial problems are discussed in Chapter 6. Also presented in Chapter 6 is a discussion of those practices that were used to ensure that ACTS was a 100% technical success. Extensive market research was conducted during the formulation of the ACTS program to identify future satellite markets and their demand. It is always difficult to conduct accu- rate market research. In Chapter 7, the results of the market research that were used in the program formulation are discussed as well as the accuracy of their predictions. As this chapter points out, the market research was quite visionary and played the key role in identifying the needed technology. The final Chapter 8 makes an assessment of how well the ACTS technology is being incorporated by the private sector. The opinions expressed in this book are those of the authors and do not represent the views of any of the government organizations or companies that participated in the ACTS program. Also, a large number of very dedicated companies, organizations and people worked on ACTS, and that total team is responsible for its success. Because of the lim- ited space available, it was not poss_le to include the names of all the people and organi- zations that participated in the program. °°° Vlll CHAPTER 1 Pror Formulation History has shown that leadership in communications carries with it substantial economic and political advantages. Communications are essential to all aspects of life including business, national affairs and cultural well being. Governments have always been involved in the regulation and technology for communications. In the US, the Federal Communi- cations Commission (FCC) is the primary agency :for regulation, and the National Aero- nautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Department of Defense (DOD) programs have been responsible for many space communication technology innovations since the late 1950's. This report about NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) pro- gram covers two topics. One topic is the innovations or new technologies that were de- veloped as part of the program and their significance. The other topic is the continuous debate that surrounded the ACTS program as to the proper role of government in spon- soring space communications research. The difficulty in the government's sponsoring of space communications research is that it benefits some companies while putting others at a perceived or real competitive disadvan- tage. When mission-speeitie communications technology is developed by NASA or DOD, much of it becomes very useful in commercial satellite communications, but this type of technology development is viewed by the industry as non-intrusive and acceptable. The ACTS program had a different objective. Its prime purpose was to develop technol- ogy for use in providing commercial communications (not a government specific mis- sion), and it became embroiled in a continuous controversy as to what was the proper role of government for this purpose. The arguments made in favor of the program were that it was important for the government to ensure the US preeminence in satellite communica- tions and to develop the technology to efficiently use the frequency spectrum. The main objections to NASA sponsoring the ACTS program was that it created an unfair competi- tive advantage for some companies and that it was not possible for the government to pre- dict what technology was needed. NASA SATELLITE COMMUNICATION PROGRAM FOR THE 1980'S In 1978, as a result of the Presidential Directive, NASA began the process of rebuilding its R & D activities in the communication satellite arena [11,12,13]. The future technology program was planned in cooperation with the National Research Council's Space Appli- cations Board Subcommittee on Satellite Communications, whose membership consisted of leading common carders, spacecraft manufacturers, and representatives of communica- tions users. MARKET & SYSTEM STUDIES In this first phase of the NASA program, market and system studies were conducted to determine future service demand and whether or not it could be satisfied by C and Ku band satellites. Two contracts were awarded to common carriers, Western Union Tele- graph Company and US Telephone and Telegraph Company, a subsidiary of Imernational Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) [14,15]. The emphasis of these studies was to forecast the telecommunications traffic that can be competitively carded by satellite. During this same time frame, two other system studies were conducted; one each by Hughes Aircraft and Ford Aerospace with supporting studies by TRW, GE, and the Mitre Corporation [ 16,17]. Their purpose was to identify the technology needed to implement cost-effective and spectrum-conservative communication systems. The results were combined to define potential operational system configurations, which could address the market for trunking and customer premises service expected in the early 1990's. System requirements derived from these postulated operational configurations formed the basis for the technology de- velopment program, which was to follow. The market studies predicted that rapid growth in domestic voice, data, and video traffic would lead to a five-fold increase in US communication demand by the early 1990's. A combination of these market projections as well as communication satellite
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