Data communications and autonomous control for a mass spectrometer on the EXOS-D satellite

Summary form only given. The orbit of the Japanese EXOS-D satellite is highly elliptical and near-polar. The satellite is out of range of its command and telemetry ground stations much of the time. The author addresses the impact that this has on the communications systems design, on the satellite and instrument design, and on the day-to-day operation of the scientific instruments aboard the satellite. SMS is a suprathermal ion mass spectrometer to be launched aboard the EXOS-D satellite in early 1989. The author presents the technical specifications of the communications systems and the hierarchical autonomous control of the mass spectrometer