Space ship telemetry

All too soon the industry will be faced with the problem of transmitting telemeter data over previously unconsidered enormous distances. The flight of an exploratory vehicle which will circle the moon before returning to earth is a definite possibility within the next ten years. The adaptation and refinement of presently available techniques for telemetry is shown to provide a number of feasible possibilities. This paper reviews the basic considerations of RF link design and presents nomographs illustrating their application to great distances, high powers, narrow bandwidths and high receiver sensitivities. New developments including the MASER amplifier, “Paraballoon” antennas and highly stabilized transmitters are discussed. System concepts such as interrogation, directional antenna steering by beacon receivers, data slow-down and storage, and encoding methods are explored.