The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Exploration Systems Mission Directorate is planning a series of human and robotic missions to the Earth's Moon and to Mars. These missions will require telecommunication and navigation services. This paper sets forth presumed requirements for such services and presents strawman lunar and Mars telecommunications network architectures to satisfy the presumed requirements. The paper suggests that a modest ground network would suffice for missions to the near-side of the Moon. A constellation of three Lunar Telecommunications Orbiters connected to a modest ground network could provide continuous redundant links to a polar lunar base and its vicinity. For human and robotic missions to Mars, a pair of areostationary satellites could provide continuous redundant links between a mid-latitude Mars base and Deep Space Network antennas augmented by large arrays of 12-m antennas.
Integrated network architecture for sustained human and robotic exploration
2005 IEEE Aerospace Conference ; 1266-1285
2005-01-01
1560414 byte
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Integrated Network Architecture for Sustained Human and Robotic Exploration
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2005
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