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BAE Systems Tracking, Telemetry and Command Processor (TTCP) will be used by the European Space Agency (Esa) to communicate with and control the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer known as Juice, on its eight year journey from Earth to Callisto, Europa and Ganymede.
The TTCP provides uplink and downlink services to support the Juice spacecraft. The uplink transmits commands that control the spacecraft and the downlink receives data including critical spacecraft health information, images, video and other scientific and engineering information.
Key features of the TTCP equipment include:
• A fully digital and flexible Software Defined Radio (SDR) able to support data rates from 1 bit per second to 300 megabits per second from multiple spacecraft simultaneously, with 50 times the processing power of current technology.
• Tracking functions able to determine the spacecraft distance to around 10 cm at ranges of billions of km.
• Doppler measurement functions able to determine the spacecraft’s velocity away from or towards the ground station to an accuracy of around 0.01 mm/s for speed in excess of 50 km/s.
• Flexible, high bandwidth digital receiver that enables networking with other ground stations to increase the performance of signal reception. The unprocessed received data can also be sent to other stations for further complex analysis.
• Proven in service at ESA Deep Space Ground stations and currently used to support ESA missions such as Gaia, Lisa Pathfinder and Exomars, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions such as Dawn.
This technology allows Esa to track and communicate with a wide range of spacecraft including future manned and robotic missions to the Moon and Mars.
About BAE Systems Digital Intelligence
BAE Systems Digital Intelligence (baesystems.com) is home to more than 4,500 digital, cyber and intelligence experts. We work collaboratively across 10 countries to collect, connect and understand complex data, so that governments, nation states, armed forces and commercial businesses can unlock digital advantage in the most demanding environments. Launched in 2022, Digital Intelligence is part of BAE Systems, and has a rich heritage in helping to defend nations and businesses from advanced threats.
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