ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The primary objective of the NASA Space-Based Range Demonstration and Certification program was to develop and demonstrate space-based range capabilities. The Flight Demonstration 2 flights at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center were conducted to support Range Safety (commanding and position reporting) and high-rate (5 Mbps) Range User (video and data) requirements. Required ground support infrastructure included a flight termination system computer, the ground-data distribution network to send range safety commands and receive range safety and range user telemetry data and video, and the ground processing systems at the Dryden Mission Control Center to process range safety and range user telemetry data and video.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / Communications support for the X-33 requires addressing several unique challenges to meet program and range safety requirements. As an avenue to minimize costs, the program has reduced requirements to the communications system, which lowered the cost of networking the extended range. Cost trade-offs showed that by lowering the telemetry data rate from 2 Megabits per second to 1.440 Megabits per second that significant cost avoidance could be realized. Also, by adopting standard telecommunications data rate for the uplink data stream, an efficient and integrated solution for the extended range communications could be supported. Meeting the program requirements as well as range safety requirements for this effort are critical to the success of the program. This paper describes some of the important requirements driving the design of the extended range communications support and the design of the system to meet those requirements.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / This paper will investigate the areas that must be addressed to implement a truly integrated Range instrumentation system on a GPS-based Range, using a patented L-Band commanding scheme. Hardware issues will be highlighted as well the issues to be addressed in changing from an audio tone-frequency modulated command system to a digital system incorporating encryption and spread spectrum. Some thoughts addressing costs and schedule to incorporate this approach into the architecture of Joint Advanced Missile Instrumentation (JAMI) program are also presented, as well as a discussion of the benefits to be accrued over the existing system.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 17-20, 1988 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Multi-Vehicle Metric & Telemetry System (MMTS) is a complete range system which performs real-time tracking, command destruct, and telemetry processing functions for support of range safety and the test and evaluation of airborne vehicles. As currently configured, the MMTS consists of five hardware and software subsystems with the capability to receive, process, and display tracking data from up to ten range sensors and telemetry data from two instrumented vehicles. During a range operation, the MMTS is employed to collect, process, and display tracking and telemetry data. The instrumentation sites designated for operational support acquire tracking and telemetered data and transmit these data to the MMTS. The raw data is then identified, formatted, time tagged, recorded, processed, and routed for display to mission control and telemetry display areas. Additionally, processed tracking data is transmitted back to instrumentation sites as an aid to acquire or maintain vehicle track. The mission control area consists of a control and status console, high resolution color graphics stations, and large screen displays. As the mission controller observes mission progress on the graphics stations operational decisions can be made and invoked by activation of the appropriate console controls. Visual alarms provided my MMTS will alert mission control personnel of hazardous conditions posed by any tracked vehicle. Manual action can then be taken to activate transmission of the MMTS vehicle destruct signal. The telemetry display area consists of ten fully-functional, PC compatible computers which are switchable to either of two telemetry front end processors. Each PC can be independently set up by telemetry analysts to display data of interest. A total of thirty data pages per PC can be defined and any defined data page can be activated during a mission. A unique feature of the MMTS is that telemetry data can be combined with tracking data for use by the range safety functions.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / A novel approach combines GPS receiver technology with micro-electromechanical inertial sensors to improve performance of single object tracking radar. The approach enhances range safety by integrating an airborne Global Positioning System/Inertial Movement Unit (GPS/IMU) with a C-band transponder to downlink time-space-position information (TSPI) via FPS-16 instrumentation radar. This improves current telemetry links and the Range Application Joint Program Office (RAJPO) data link for downlinking TSPI because of the inherent long-range advantage of the radar. The goal of the project is to provide distance independent accuracy, and to demonstrate continuous 15-meter or better position accuracy over the entire flight envelope out to slant ranges up to 1,000 Km with at least 50 updates per second. This improves safety coverage for the wide area flight testing. It provides risk reduction for the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC), Edwards Air Force Base, California and other ranges planning TSPI system upgrades.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / This paper presents a Flight Safety System (FSS) for multiple, reliable Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV’s) capable of flying Over-the-Horizon (OTH) and outside test range airspace. Expanded uses beyond flight safety, such as UAV Air Traffic Control, are considered also. This system satisfies the operational requirement for a Hazard Control Communication Channel as well as providing a reverse communications channel to provide Safety Critical Information to the Range Safety Officer (RSO). Upon examining 60 communications candidates, IRIDIUM accessed through a Data Distribution Network (DDN), with ARINC being a potential service provider, is recommended.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Ballistic Missile Range Safety Technology (BMRST) program developed and demonstrated a low-cost, rapidly reconfigurable, launch range tracking and safety system. The system is comprised of both an on-board tracking unit and a ground based telemetry acquisition and control system. The on-board unit is based on an integrated GPS/INS unit with an embedded S-band telemetry transmitter. The ground system is comprised of fully redundant telemetry acquisition systems, telemetry processing computers, tracking computers, and secure/IRIG UHF command destruct transmission systems. This paper provides an overview of the system architecture and describes telemetry system design trades in particular. The paper describes how aircraft and satellite testing supports verification of system tracking capability. The paper closes by presenting data from the Quick Reaction Launch Vehicle (QRLV) flight test in Kodiak, Alaska.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The US Air Force is required to protect the lives of individuals and property in areas potentially hazardous as a result of launch vehicle failures occurring from Vandenberg AFB, California. This paper describes the application of modern telemetry processing equipment to the Range Safety function.

The Enhanced Flight Termination System uses weak CPM as its modulation scheme and a limiter-discriminator as its demodulation scheme. A PAM representation of weak CPM was developed which representation provided the necessary componenents to build a simplified PAM-based receiver that outperformed the EFTS limiter-discriminator, even in the presence of phase noise. The PAM representation also provided a new perspective into the negative characteristics of weak CPM.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The transmission of high-rate telemetry data for space-based relay systems yields unique system requirements. The NASA Space-based Telemetry and Range-Safety (STARS) study evaluated system design requirements during Phase-1 flight tests. STARS Phase-2 efforts include the development of a high-rate transmitter and antenna system to demonstrate prototype system performance capabilities and new technologies for future operational systems to be incorporated into the NASA Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) vehicles. Phase-2 Range User (telemetry) system performance requirements and a prototype implementation approach are presented.