Experimental Aerospace Missions for EHF Communications

The possibility to transfer huge amount of data in a very short time via satellite is attractive both for civil (i.e. telemedicine, tele-learning) and military applications. The use of EHF frequency bands is a viable possibility to reach this objective, even if, especially for the W-band, many challenges arise. The Italian Space Agency has invested in that direction with the conviction that will bring a lot of benefits to both the scientific and industrial community. This paper presents the main experimental missions that have been conceived for the exploitation of EHF frequency bands in communication via satellite.