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COMETS

Already in development before the ETS VI accident was the Communications and Broadcasting Engineering Test Satellite (COMETS), also sponsored by NASDA, designed to test inter-satellite and advanced mobile satellite communications. With an overall mass and spacecraft bus similar to ETS VI, COMETS, to be launched in 1997, would carry a variety of Ka-band and S-band transponders and would be stationed at 121 degrees E. Gallium arsenide solar cells will provide increased power (up to 5.5 kW) as compared to ETS VI. Eventually a 2-satellite Data Relay and Tracking Satellite (DRTS) network is envisioned with full compatibility with its American and European counterparts (References 173-177).

173. N. W. Davis, "Japan Expands Research on Communications Satellites", Aerospace America, August 1992, p. 22-24.

174. NASDA Report, No. 2, November 1988, pp. 4-5.

175. NASDA. National Space Development Agency of Japan, 1994, pp. 19-20.

176. B.I. Edelson, op. cit. p. 270-277.

177. S. Mansfield, "Japanese Make Progress on Experimental Comets Program", Space News, 27 June - 3 July 1994, p.8.

Sources and Resources

• Adapted from: Europe and Asia in Space 1993-1994, Nicholas Johnson and David Rodvold [Kaman Sciences / Air Force Phillips Laboratory]

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