Abstract: | In the early 1980's NASA will enter a new era of space program, i.e., space transportation through Space Shuttle. It will have a new large scale space communication system for satellite tracking and data transmission known as the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). With two geosynchronous relay satellites TDRSS can provide nearly worldwide coverage for communication between all near orbiting satellites and the satellite control center at Goddard Space Flight Center. Each future NASA satellite will carry a TDRSS transponder with which the satellite can communicate through a TDRS to the ground station at White Sands, New Mexico. It is using this system that the ground station master clock time signal can be transmitted to the near earth orbiting satellite in which a clock may be maintained independently to the accuracy required by the experimenters. This paper presents the satellite time transfer terminal design concept and the application of the time signal in autonomously operated spacecraft clock. Some pertinent TDRSS parameters and corrections for the propagation delay measurement as well as the time code used to transfer the time signal will be given. |
Published in: |
Proceedings of the 11th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting November 27 - 29, 1979 Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland |
Pages: | 45 - 64 |
Cite this article: | Chi, Andrew R., "Satellite Time Transfer via TDRSS and Applications," Proceedings of the 11th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Greenbelt, Maryland, November 1979, pp. 45-64. |
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