Space Communications
New York: McGraw-Hill, [1963]. Hardcover. 24 cm, 422 pages, illustrations. Name written in ink inside front board, DJ worn, torn in places, and missing small pieces. Space Communications can be defined as communications between a vehicle in outer space and Earth, using high-frequency electromagnetic radiation (radio waves). Provision for such communication is an essential requirement of any space mission. The total communication system ordinarily includes (1) command, the transmission of instructions to the spacecraft; (2) telemetry, the transmission of scientific and applications data from the spacecraft to Earth; and (3) tracking, the determination of the distance (range) from Earth to the spacecraft and its radial velocity (range-rate) toward or away from Earth by the measurement of the round-trip radio transmission time and Doppler frequency shift (magnitude and direction). A specialized but commercially important application, which is excluded from consideration here, is the communications satellite system in which the spacecraft serves solely as a relay station between remote points on Earth. Alampallam Venkatachalaiyer Balakrishnan was an American applied mathematician and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was a recipient of the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award which is the highest recognition of professional achievement for US control systems engineers and scientists in 2001 for "pioneering contributions to stochastic and distributed systems theory, optimization, control, and aerospace flight systems research".[3]
Balakrishnan grew up in Chennai, India, and entered the University of Madras in the early 1940s. While there he earned a scholarship from the Indian government to study in the United States and learn to produce documentaries. Upon arriving at the University of Southern California, known for its film school, he initially wanted to become a sound engineer on Hollywood films. At the time, he was unable to get a position because he was not a member of any of the guilds, which controlled who was able to get a jobs. Therefore, after earning his first master's degree in cinema in 1949, he switched to electrical engineering. Balakrishnan received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Southern California in 1950 and 1954, respectively. He has been Professor of Engineering and Professor of Mathematics since 1965 at The University of California, Los Angeles. He was Chair of the Department of Systems Science in the (then) School of Engineering from 1969-1975, and Director of the NASA-UCLA Flight Systems Research Center since 1985. He has received honors and awards from the International Federation of Information Processing Society (1977), NASA (1978, 1992,1995, and 1996), and, in 1980, the Guillemin Prize in recognition of the major impact that his original contributions have had in setting the research direction of communications and control. His last student was Phani Madhav Yannam, MSEE (Class of 2015) at The University of California Los Angeles.
Eberhardt Rechtin (January 16, 1926 – April 14, 2006) was an American systems engineer and respected authority in aerospace systems and systems architecture. While at Caltech, and for many years after receiving his degree, Rechtin worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It was here where he was introduced to the new mathematics of noise, statistical communications and servomechanism stability by Dr. William H. Pickering and others. The Laboratory was then working on problems of radio guidance and telemetry of missiles, subsequently converted and extended to telecommunications and tracking for deep space vehicles. He was instrumental in extending the mathematical foundations to phase locked systems operating in severe jamming and noise conditions, to coded digital transmission, and to communicating with high velocity vehicles. By the late 1950s, these developments were applied to the U.S. space program. Rechtin is often referred to as the “Father of the Deep Space Network”, the resulting world-wide network of stations developed by NASA/JPL to track and acquire data from the spacecraft. Rechtin served as director of the project and Assistant Director of the JPL. During Rechtin’s years at JPL, he also worked with NATO’s Advisory Group on Aeronautical Research and Development, helping the defense organization develop space applications. He continued his role on NATO committees in research and telecommunications when he moved to the Department of Defense. At Department of Defense, Rechtin became the Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, (later known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In 1970 he became the principal deputy in the office of the director of Defense Research and Engineering, and then the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Telecommunications. During his time at the Department of Defense, he was concerned with policy formulation and implementation in defense research and engineering and in defense telecommunications. In his later years, this included the development of policies for defense telecommunications satellites, secure communications, network interoperability, survivability under attack, and responsiveness to the National Command Authority, all of which became central to the era’s Defense Communications System. Condition: good / good.
Keywords: Aerospace, Telecommunications, Satellites, Antennas, Nimbus Satellite, Telemetry, NASA, Pioneer IV, Spacecraft, Astronautics;
[Book #16631]
Price: $65.00