ITC/USA 2006 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Second Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 23-26, 2006 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / We describe the design and development of a baseband telemetry system for multistage launch vehicles. The system is organized as a three tier one with remote data acquisition and processing units and a centralized control unit. The front-end Data Acquisition Units (DAUs) feature software programmable amplification, offset, filtering and sensor excitation and thus are flexible to interface directly to a variety of sensors used in launch vehicles. The Data Processing Units (DPUs) gather data from DAUs through a serial link compatible to RS-485 standards and carry out a variety of data analysis and data compression functions on selected channels under software control. The central Telemetry Control Unit (TCU) receives this data through a transformer isolated link compatible to MIL-1553B standards and performs the functions of data delay, data storage, onboard computer data monitoring, PCM formatting and pre-modulation signal conditioning to achieve miniaturization. The configuration and features of this telemetry system make its integration simple without compromising on data integrity and reliability and suit the adoption of futuristic technologies and concepts such as smart sensor networks, adaptability, reconfiguration and vehicle health management.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / With explosive growth in the satellite communication market. there is an increasing need for the satellite network service providers to support many satellites with a common Telemetry, Tracking, and Commanding (TT&C) assets. The open bus technology, and Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Hardware and Software components, provides an opportunity to build a common IF and baseband systems that will support many satellites with different frequencies and protocols. However, the high frequency front end components of the ground station such as antenna or HPA can not be common due to different gain and polarization requirements of the various communication bands and frequencies. The system architecture presented in this paper offers such system that is interoperable and reconfigurable in near real-time to support multiple frequency and multiple communication protocols.