Technical Considerations Concerning Use of a Geostationary Operational Environmental (GOES) to Support the PEACESAT Network on an Interim Basis

The Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) has performed a number of technical tasks as part of the responsibilities of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for re–establishing the Pan-Pacific Educational and Cultural Experiments by Satellite (PEACESAT) network and services provided by the network. This report contains a brief discussion of the PEACESAT network and services using the Applications Technology Satellite–1 (ATS–1) as background to the current work and the technical material developed at ITS in performing this work. The tasks supported by NTIA on which this report contains information include: (1) participation in the Technical Options Panel (TOP) to define PEACESAT operational and users' requirements and the identification of possible satellite resources to replace the ATS–1 satellite, (2) a brief discussion of the history of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) as a candidate satellite to replace ATS–1 with particular attention given to description of the GOES communication subsystem, (3) analysis of the suitability of the GOES S–Band transponder to support the PEACESAT network (as an interim solution), and (4) analysis of the technical considerations pertaining to command and control of a GOES satellite being used for PEACESAT during an interim period.