NASA´s Advanced Communications Technology Satellite Program and its applications

The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) Program is developing a variety of satellite communication technologies, and through its Experiments Program, promoting the applications that will use this technology. Examples of the developmental technologies include 30/20-GHz components, 110-Mb/s time-division multiple access, onboard digital signal regeneration and switching, and multibeam antennas. Various earth station developments, such as Jet Propulsion Laboratory´s Advanced Mobile Terminal, the Harris T1 Very Small Aperture Terminal, the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Ultra Small Aperture Terminal, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency High Data Rate Earth Station, that will access the unique capabilities of the ACTS, are underway. The author summarizes the technologies and the applications that will be demonstrated during the ACTS operational phase which began in April 1993