Inexpensive Rate-1/6 Convolutional Decoder for Integration and Test Purposes

• Main Authors: Mengel, Edwin E., Simpson, Mark E.
• Language: en_US
• Published: International Foundation for Telemetering 1996
• Subjects: Rate 1/6; constraint length 15; convolutional encoding; convolutional decoding; satellite communication; satellite telemetry; Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous; NEAR
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/611478; http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/handle/10150/611478

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California === The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) satellite will travel to the asteroid 433 Eros, arriving there early in 1999, and orbit the asteroid for 1 year taking measurements that will map the surface features and determine its elemental composition. NEAR is the first satellite to use the rate-1/6 convolutional encoding on its telemetry downlink. Due to the scarcity and complexity of full decoders, APL designed and built a less capable but inexpensive version of the decoder for use in the integration, test, and prelaunch checkout of the rate-1/6 encoder. This paper describes the rationale for the design, how it works, and the features that are included.