According to the ITU Radio Regulations and CCSDS Recommendation about radio frequency, the 8400-8450 MHz band is allocated for Space Research Service (SRS) (category B) space-to-earth, and the 8400-8450 MHz deep space band is critical to the success of deep space missions. Since the 8025-8400MHz Earth Exploration Satellite Service (EESS) band is allocated for the downlinks of earth exploration satellites, the unwanted adjacent band emission may exceed the protection criterion established by the ITU-R for the protection of the deep space earth stations by a large amount and results in harmful interference to the deep space earth station systems. This paper first introduces a conceptual future scenario with frequency bands. Secondly, the paper discusses the characteristics that are unique to the deep space downlinks and then presents the characteristics of the EESS out-of-band interference to the deep space downlink X-band. Finally, the paper describes the effects of the interference on the deep space earth station systems.

Date Published: 10 November 2007
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 6795, Second International Conference on Space Information Technology, 67954K (10 November 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.774801

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6795:
Second International Conference on Space Information Technology
Cheng Wang; Shan Zhong; Jiaolong Wei, Editor(s)