This volume presents an overview of an assessment of the ability of the next generation Defense System Communications Satellite (DSCS III) to be made autonomous, i.e., to operate successfully without ground intervention for up to six months. The assessment concludes that while the current DSCS III design incorporates some autonomy, extensive revisions, particularly in the health and welfare maintenance areas and in stationkeeping, would be required to achieve autonomous operations for six months. Options for providing a six-month autonomous operations capability are outlined. These require primarily the addition of some on-based computing capability and autonomous stationkeeping sensors. Mass and power impacts of the additions would be relatively modest, but on-board computing and control complexity would increase substantially. (Author)


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