Technology review of present and future personal communication satellite payloads

This paper examines the satellite payload hardware design and the technical challenges to provide true mobility and to have access to a wide variety of communication services on a global scale. It identifies the key elements to achieving the performance and capacity demands, and addresses the technical barriers to be overcome. Ther are a number of associated system issues, such as network services and management, satellite constellation, payload concept and available technology. Consequently, the paper focuses on the payload hardware design aspects and, finally, for completeness the research activities and developments pursued by European industry with the support of the European Space Agency are highlighted.