Online Journal of Space Communication
Article Title
Summary Report on Key ACTS Experiments
Abstract
NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) is an on-orbit test bed in geostationary orbit. Launched on September 12, 1993, ACTS is pioneering new technologies that promise to propel communication satellites into new and expanded roles in the National and Global Information Superhighways. Over 100 different industry, government, and university organizations are conducting a variety of user service application, technology verification and propagation experiments. This paper addresses the experiments being conducted using the on-board baseband processor to efficiently route communication traffic to and from small 1.2 meter diameter antenna, T1 VSAT earth stations. These T1 VSATs provide the capability for integrated voice, data, video, multimedia and ISDN traffice to be delivered to/received from multiple destinations in a single hop with throughputs from 64 Kbps up to 1.79 Mbps per earth station.