Olympus (satellite)

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Olympus
Start date July 12, 1989, 12:14 UTC
Launcher Ariane 3 V32
Launch site CSG , ELA-1
COSPAR-ID : 1989-053A
Takeoff mass 2612 kg
Dimensions 2.57 x 2.10 x 1.75 m
Span in orbit 27.5 m
Manufacturer Main contractor:
British Aerospace
lifespan 5 years
Stabilization triaxial
operator European space agencyESA ESA
Playback information
Transponder 2 BSS bands , 4 SMS bands and 2 Ka bands , plus 20/30 GHz beacons for measuring the propagation properties of the frequencies
Transponder performance 230 W in the BSS band, 30 watts in the SMS and Ka band
Bandwidth 27 MHz in the BSS band
EIRP around 62.4 dBW in the BSS band
Others
Electrical power 3600 W
Power storage 24 Ah nickel-cadmium and 35 Ah nickel-hydrogen
position
First position 19 ° west
Actual position Cemetery orbit
List of geostationary satellites

Olympus is an experimental television and communications satellite operated by ESA .

development

Development work on Olympus began under the name L-Sat (although not confirmed, it can be assumed that L stands for Large). Originally several L-Sat satellites were supposed to be manufactured to test new technologies: z. B. Direct TV reception for private households (in the BSS band), frequency changes and frequency reuse, video conferences, high-speed data transmission (in the SMS band), video conferences between two or more points and data transmission (in the Ka band). In the Ku and Ka bands he should carry out frequency propagation tests. Instead of several L-Sats, however, only Olympus was built. Olympus was the first ESA geostationary satellite with three-axis stabilization. A short time later, Olympus was surpassed by the Intelsat 6 satellites in terms of weight , but these did not come close to the performance of its roll-out solar cells of 3.6 kilowatts.

begin

The satellite was launched on July 12, 1989 at 02:14 CEST from the Center Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana . The launch aboard an Ariane 3 rocket was successful and a specialty. Olympus was so heavy that it required almost the entire payload capacity of this rocket, which is why its launch was the only one of this type of rocket with only one satellite on board. Olympus was put into geostationary orbit with just one ignition of its apogee motor from the GTO. He reached his position on August 3, 1989.

commitment

Olympus carried out its experiments successfully, but was haunted by bad luck and did not achieve the planned lifespan, so the experiments turned out to be shorter than planned.

First in January 1991 the tracking of one of the two solar generators failed. However, the remaining electrical power from the other generator wing was sufficient to continue operating the satellite with all experiments. However, this required complicated operations, which may have been the reason why control over him was lost in May 1991. Olympus then left his position. He was rescued and after 77 days, on August 13, 1991, he was able to resume his service at 19 ° West. However, in August 1993 contact was lost again for an unknown reason. The satellite left its position again. A hit by a meteor shower was suspected as a possible cause. When contact was re-established, Olympus was maneuvered out of the GEO into a cemetery orbit and shut down because the first rescue operation had consumed so much fuel that another was no longer possible.

Olympus also established a Ka-band connection to ESA's EURECA satellites during experiments .

reception

The satellite broadcast a BSS band channel for Italy and a BSS channel originally intended for Austria for large parts of Europe . The SMS band transponders had controllable parabolic antennas and the Ka band transponders had controllable parabolic antennas for spot beams.

The transmission took place in the Ku-band and Ka-band .

See also

Web links

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