FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1452.PDF
244 FLIGHT International, 16 August 196? VALVE BOTTLE - COMMUNICATION ELECTRONICS^; 3 CONTROL AMPLIFIERS «• ORBITING DIRECTION 'MAGNETOMETER FUEL TANK AND TWO REDUCING VALVES- SOLAR PADDLES WITH CELLS ON BOTH- SIDESOFEACH PADDLE APPROX 13%»SQ FT ON EACH FACE (110 SQ. FT TOTALJ TO EARTHS CENTRE . 4 DOUBLE SKINNED EQUIPMENT COMMUNICATION ELECTRONICS" COMPARTMENTS ROLL JETS" . PITCH JETS \ fl-DAMPING GYROS 3mD'A — STATION-KEEPING JETS (ORBIT CORRECTION) il VALVE BOTTLE TWO HORIZON SENSORS General arrangement of the communication satellite design proposed by the Royal Aircraft Establishment BRITAIN'S COMSAT PLANS — First Details Royal Aircraft Establishment Proposes Circular, Equatorial-orbit System to Meet Post Office Requirements WHAT comes next after Telstar ? After last month's dramatic demonstrations of high-quality telephony, photo-tele graphy and colour and black-and-white television using the world's first commercial satellite as a link between North America and Europe, this question is now of general, not merely specialist, interest. Technical details of US plans for civil com munication satellites have been well publicized, even if regulation of operational systems remains a thorny government/industry problem. In this country, the General Post Office has said little about the possible future picture that it foresees for communication by satellite. This article describes for the first time the lines along which Britain's space scientists and GPO engineers are thinking in the possible future provision of an operational communication satellite system. Most of this thinking has gone into the design study of communica tion satellite systems carried out for the GPO by the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. The most tangible end-product was a report, A Study of Satellite Systems for Civil Communications, written by Dr A. W. Lines, now Head of the Space Department at RAE, and two of his senior colleagues, E. G. C. Burt and A. G. Earl, and reinforced by no fewer than twelve appendices. The RAE study started from two basic assumptions: the use of the European Launcher Development Organization's three-stage launch vehicle based on Blue Streak as the first stage; and the need to provide a worldwide telephone and video communication system as specified by the GPO. In particular, the system was to provide a network linking the principal communication centres of Western Europe and the Commonwealth with other world centres.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
