Spacecraft Telemetry Tracking State of the Art and Trends

Abstract

Telemetry Tracking is a method of obtaining trajectory information regarding any flying body such as an aircraft, missile, satellite, balloon or a deep space probe which signals or "marks" its flight position by an electromagnetic radiating source. In a trade-off of costs it is an attractive way to combine Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TTC) facilities into one integrated system on board a spacecraft and with the ground receiving and tracking facilities. The present state of the art of Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) and Angle Measuring Equipment (AME) integrated with telemetry systems is reviewed. The further development will be mainly stimulated by the technology evolution of frequency and time reference sources, microwave components and information processing systems. An attempt is made to analyse which way the growth of technology will influence various system parameters.