A comparison of three communication satellite system design concepts was made. Single or multisatellite per mission systems, the satellite cluster system, and a proposed European satellite assembly system (ESAS) were examined. It is shown that for sets of comparable mission requirement and procurement and operation conditions, satellite-cluster systems are cheaper than individual satellite systems, but require communication service integration of missions with at least three times the basic capacity of a single satellite per mission system. It is also shown that a satellite assembly system can be substantially less expensive than the equivalent cluster system and does not require operational mission integration of communication services. If commercial application on a world-wide scale is considered, a comparison between possible cost competitive non-European single-satellite and cluster systems and commercial communication satellites using the ESAS concept shows a clear advantage towards the latter.
Future Space Segment Concepts for Lower Cost Communication Satellite Systems
1981
28 pages
Report
No indication
English