Signaling-and-Detection Scheme for Beacon Monitoring

A signaling-and-detection scheme has been proposed for use in conjunction with the remote-monitoring concept described in "Beacon Monitoring Would Reduce Interactions With Remote Systems" (NPO-19706), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 21, No. 5 (May 1997), page 54. To recapitulate: A remote system (a spacecraft in the original intended application) would contain a semiautonomous computer-based monitoring subsystem that would analyze data acquired by onboard instrumentation and would produce a summary assessment of the status of the system. The summary assessment would be represented by one of four messages. To minimize the demand on communication resources and thereby minimize the cost of operation, the subsystem would ordinarily not transmit full telemetric data to a control station (a ground station in the original application). Instead, the subsystem would transmit one of the four messages as a radio beacon signal. Operators on the ground could decide, partly on the basis of the received beacon message, whether and when full telemetric data were needed. Full telemetric data would be transmitted from the remote system to the control station only on command by operators on the ground.