International Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

http://www.arresearchpublication.com

ISSN- 2321-2055 (E)

IJEEE, Vol. No.6, Issue No. 02, July-Dec., 2014

TELEMETRY, TRACKING, COMMAND AND

MONITORING SYSTEM IN GEOSTATIONARY
SATELLITE
Alish1, Ritambhara Pandey2
1, 2

UG, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,

Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology for Women, Ghaziabad (India)

ABSTRACT
The Telemetry system sends data derived from many sensors on the satellite, which monitor satellites health; via a
telemetry link to the controlling earth station. These systems are partly on the satellite and partly at the controlling
earth station. The tracking system is located at this earth station and provides information on the range and the
elevation and azimuth angles of the satellite. Based on telemetry data received from the satellite and orbital data
obtained from the tracking system, the control system is used to correct the position and attitude of the satellite .It is
also used to control the antenna pointing and communication system configuration to suit current traffic
requirements, and to operate switches on the satellite.

I. INTRODUCTION
The TTC & M system is essential to the successful operation of a communication satellite and sends this data to the
controlling earth station. Satellite management has various quality of controlling the task which are totally dedicated
to that particular work and it also has a group of personnel. The telemetry, tracking and control subsystem provides
various essential communication to and from the space vehicle. The main functions of a satellite management are
to control the orbit and attitude of the satellite, monitor the status of all sensors and subsystems on the satellite, and
the measurement describes the satellite, subsystem by subsystem. These measurements takes into account magnitude
which varies with different parameters which varies in terms of voltage and current.

II. TELEMETRY AND MONITORING SYSTEM

The monitoring system has an ability of collecting the data obtained from many sensors within the satellites and
after observing it, sends these data to the controlling earth station. There may be several hundred sensors on the
satellite which are used in the monitoring of various parameters such as pressure, voltage and current in the power
conditioning unit, which draw the voltage and currents in the communication electronics. The temperature of many
subsystems must be kept within predetermined limits as it is the most important parameter in communication
systems. The sensor data and the status of each subsystem, can be reported back to the earth by the telemetry

261 | P a g e

International Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

http://www.arresearchpublication.com

ISSN- 2321-2055 (E)

IJEEE, Vol. No.6, Issue No. 02, July-Dec., 2014

system. Telemetry data are usually digitized and transmitted as phase shift keying (PSK) of a low-power telemetry
carrier using time division techniques. The entire TDM frame may contain thousands of bits of data and take several
seconds to transmit. The controlling earth station performs the function of monitoring, storing and decoding the data
so that the status of any system or sensor on the satellite can be determined immediately by the controller on the
earth.

Fig1: Typical Tracking, Telemetry, Command and Monitoring System.

III. TRACKING
A number of techniques can be used to determine the current orbit of a satellite. The current position of an orbit can
be determined by integrating the data obtained by velocity and acceleration sensors. The earth station controlling the
satellite can observe the Doppler shift of the telemetry carrier or beacon transmitter carrier to determine the rate at
which range is changing. The range obtained from angular measurements from the earth station is capable of
determining the orbital elements .A pulse or a sequence of pulses is transmitted to the satellite and time delay before
the pulse is received is observed to calculate active range. Triangulation method is used to determine the position of
a satellite when a sufficient number of earth stations are observing it. Ranging measurements can also be done using
Ranging tones. A series of increasing frequency sine waves are used to modulate the onboard generated carrier. The
number of wavelengths of each frequency can be obtained by comparing the phase of modulating component of sine

262 | P a g e

International Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

http://www.arresearchpublication.com

ISSN- 2321-2055 (E)

IJEEE, Vol. No.6, Issue No. 02, July-Dec., 2014

wave. For the determination of exact orbital position of the satellite the elevation and azimuth angle measurements
are very important.

Fig 2: Satellite in an inclined orbit

IV. COMMAND
A reliable and effective command structure is essential for the successful launch and operation of any
communication satellite. The correction to the orbit and changes in the attitude is done by the command system.
During launch, it is used to control the firing of the apogee kick motor and to spin up a spinner or extend the solar
sails and antennas of a three-axis stabilized satellite. Encryption of commands and responses is used to provide
security in the command system. First of all the control code is converted into a command word and sent to the
satellite in a TDM frame. The command and telemetry links can operate in the same frequency band (6 and 4 GHz)
but they are usually separated from the communication system. In case the main TTC & M system fails, the backup
system is used to keep the satellite on station. It is also used to eject the satellite from geostationary orbit.

Fig 3: Control Panel.

263 | P a g e

International Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

http://www.arresearchpublication.com

ISSN- 2321-2055 (E)

IJEEE, Vol. No.6, Issue No. 02, July-Dec., 2014

Fig 4: TTC& M Satellite

V. TT&C Interferences
Subsystem

Requirement

Attitude determination and control

Antenna pointing

Command and data handling

Command and telemetry data rates Clock, bit sync and

timing

requirements,

Two-way

communication

requirements, Autonomous fault detection and recovery,

Command and telemetry electrical interface.
Electrical Power Subsystems

Distribution requirements

Thermal/Structural

Heat sinks for TWTAs, Heat dissipation for all active

boxes, Location of TT&C subsystem electronics, Clear
field of view for all antennas.

Payload

Storing

missing

data,

RF

and

EMC

storage

requirements, Special requirements for modulation and

coding.

VI. TT&C Trade offs

1. Antenna size vs transmitted power.
2. Solid state amplifiers vs travelling wave tube amplifiers.
264 | P a g e

International Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

http://www.arresearchpublication.com

ISSN- 2321-2055 (E)

IJEEE, Vol. No.6, Issue No. 02, July-Dec., 2014

3. Spacecraft complexity vs ground complexity.

VII. CONCLUSION
After studying the TTC&M satellite system thoroughly we concluded that the satellite must carry a number of
subsystem to support its communications mission. The attitude and orbital control system keeps the satellite in the
correct orbit. The Telemetry, Tracking, command and monitoring system allows and earth station to control the
subsystems in the satellite and to monitor their health. Solar cells are used to generate the electrical power, batteries
provides essential power during launch and eclipses. Satellites often employ frequency reused that can allow the
same RF spectrum to be used more than once to increase the satellites capacity. Antennas are a limiting factor in all
radio communication system. Reliability is an another important issue in satellite. Additional receiver and high
power amplifier that can take over when a unit falls is provided by redundancy.

REFERENCES
[1] WALTER L. MORGAN, GARY D. GORDAN, Communication satellites handbook, Wiley Interscience, New
York, 1989.
[2] TIMOTHY PRATT, CHARLES BOSTIAN, JEREMY ALLNUTT, Satellite Communications, second edition,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, George Mason University, 2011(Reprint).
[3] W.H. BRAUN and J.E. KEIGLER, RCA Satellite Networks: High Technology and Low User Cost,
Proceedings of the IEEE, 72, 1483-1505, November 1984.
[4] www.astrolink.com
[5] www.hns.com.spaceway
[6] Pisacane, Vincent L. and Robert C. Moore (1994); Fundamentals Of Space Systems, Oxford University Press,
New York, 1994.

265 | P a g e