Spacecraft Subsystem Operations

Kurzfassung

This chapter deals with the operations of the spacecraft components that allow the radio frequency transmission of remote monitoring and control information of a spacecraft. Although in many projects and system descriptions this function is handled as a subcomponent of the Data Handling Subsystem, we decided to treat it here as a selfstanding subsystem. Common names of it are TM/TC (Telemetry/Telecommand) or TCR (Telemetry, Commanding and Ranging). The subsystem as it is described below serves only the role of radio link and not of any processing of or insight into the transferred data which is done by the Data-Handling Subsystem. This subsystem can also be used for orbit determination, a function that is commonly referred to as “ranging” or “tracking”. The future prospect of optical communication is not covered here.