CONTENTS

 

 1     Introduction
 
2     Description of the space VLBI system
        2.1     Telecommunication links for space VLBI
                  2.1.1     Earth-to-space (E-s) telecommand link
                  2.1.2     E-s phase transfer link for time and frequency synchronization
                  2.1.3     Space-to-Earth (s-E) telemetry link for science data
                  2.1.4     S-E phase transfer link
 
3     Technical characteristics
        3.1     Telemetry link
                  3.1.1     Space VLBI cross correlation function
                  3.1.2     Cross-correlation SNR degradation
                  3.1.3     Required interference criterion for the telemetry link
                  3.1.4     Required bandwidths for the telemetry channel
                  3.1.5     Preferred space-to-Earth telemetry carrier frequencies
        3.2     Phase-transfer link
                  3.2.1     Phase noise introduced in propagation
                  3.2.2     Phase noise introduced in carrier recovery
 
4     Preferred frequency bands and bandwidths within the space research service (SRS) allocated bands
 
5     Characteristics of existing and planned space VLBI systems
 
6     Characteristics of earth stations