Lockheed Martin Corporation
DISRUPTIVE FLEXIBLE GEO SATELLITE CONSTELLATION SYSTEM

Abstract:

An apparatus for disruptive flexible geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite constellation system includes an electronic steering array (ESA) including multiple antenna elements, a number of frequency converters coupled to the ESA, and a digital control unit to provide frequency and gain control commands to the frequency converters. Each frequency converter is coupled to an antenna element of the ESA and forms an independent payload path. A payload path is configurable to support a communication beam-pair consisting of a transmit (TX) beam and a receive (RX) beam. Each frequency converter is configured to couple the TX beam to the RX beam and to adjust a channel frequency and a gain of a respective optical communication beam independently using the frequency and gain control commands.