To enhance the flexibility and responsiveness of commercial space operations, improved surveillance techniques are required to track the ascent and descent of a space vehicle through the national airspace system. In this paper, a prototype UAT Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (or ADS-B) transmitter developed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for research purposes is presented. The past flight history and design of this prototype is briefly discussed. Next, the experimental results of a flight onboard a commercial reusable launch vehicle (RLV) that functions similar to a sounding rocket is presented and analyzed. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible future work in adapting ADS-B to support commercial space operations for not just reusable launch vehicles, but other commercial space transportation vehicles as well.
Demonstration and evaluation of ADS-B technology for commercial space operations onboard reusable sub-orbital launch vehicles
2014-04-01
670431 byte
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Reusable Launch Vehicles and Space Operations
NTIS | 2000
|Reusable Space Launch Vehicles
AIAA | 1999
|