. 24/7 Space News .
25th SFGC Meeting Opens In Beijing

Ground stations make use of radio frequencies to communicate with spacecraft. Artist's impression of the ESA spacecraft Venus Express, scheduled for launch 26 October 2005. Credit: ESA.

Beijing (ESA) Oct 12, 2005
The Space Frequency Coordination Group meets tomorrow in Beijing for its annual conference, 25 years after ESA's then Director General, Eric Quistgaard, promoted the idea of creating an international group to manage and coordinate the use of radio frequencies by space agencies.

The idea originated with Gerry Block, former Head of ESA's Frequency Management Office. In brief, his idea was to set up an informal group, made up of all the major space agencies, to more effectively use and manage the radio frequency bands allocated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for space programmes.

ESA offered to provide the permanent secretariat so as to provide continuity and support meetings.

"Like water and energy, the radio spectrum is a finite resource that needs to be used wisely if everyone wants to have a share," says Edoardo Marelli, Executive Secretary of the Space Frequency Coordination Group (SFGC) and head of ESA's Frequency Management Office.

"Thanks are due to the pioneers who had the vision of creating this group at a time when it was not yet obvious that the radio spectrum was going to become a very scarce resource for an ever increasing number of users," he added.

Every space mission needs radio frequency bands to control and operate the satellite, to transmit data from the spacecraft and, in some cases, to make scientific measurements with microwave instruments such as radiometers, sounders, altimeters, scatterometers and synthetic attitude radars.

SFCG ensures that these bands are used and shared in the most effective way possible by its member agencies. This is achieved by establishing technical recommendations applicable to all missions by member space agencies and by bilateral/multilateral frequency coordination of new space missions under development.

The Group also follows and influences any changes in the international regulations on frequency use that may affect member agencies.

Beijing meeting

This year, participants at the eight-day conference will have a particularly busy agenda ahead of them. Topics to be discussed range between selecting frequencies for lunar and Mars missions, optimising the use of frequencies that are specific for wideband downlinks, and protecting passive sensing bands from unwanted emissions by users of neighbouring bands.

Each year SFGC holds its annual meeting in the country of one of its members. This year's 25th anniversary conference is hosted by the Chinese Meteorological Administration in Beijing.

Altogether 10 national space agencies attended SFCG's first meeting, held in Toulouse, France in 1980. Now the Group can count nearly all the world's space agencies among its members, representing 23 different countries.

As Edoardo Marelli proudly reports, "no other group of radio frequency users enjoys such a coordinated approach to frequency management as the space agencies represented in SFCG".

Related Links
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Harris To Provide Space Systems/Loral With Unfurlable Antenna Reflectors
Melbourne FL (SPX) Oct 11, 2005
Harris announced Monday that it has been selected by Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), Palo Alto, California, to design and construct four unfurlable mesh reflectors for three commercial satellites that SS/L is supplying to telecommunications and radio broadcast service providers.







  • NASA's Centennial Challenges Collaborates With Foundation
  • NASA's Centennial Challenges Collaborates With Foundation
  • AeroAstro Awarded Phase II SBIR Contract For Advanced Miniature Star Tracker
  • Space tourist Olsen returns to Earth

  • Opportunity Backs Out Of Potentially Sticky Situation
  • Learning To Work In The Suit
  • Spirit Preparing For Robotic Arm Work
  • CMU Postdoctoral Study Rocks With Mars Similarities

  • Syracuse 3A And Galaxy 15 To Launch October 13
  • ESA Begins Cryosat Launch Failure Probe
  • Russia To Reduce Military At Cosmodrome
  • European Ice Satellite Lost By Rocket Launcher

  • Wetlands Satellite Mapping Scheme Yielding First Results
  • Interview With Volker Liebig On The Loss Of Cryosat
  • Ice Satellite Loss Was A Disaster, Say Scientists
  • DigitalGlobe Unveils Plans For WorldView I And WorldView II Imaging Systems

  • The PI's Perspective: Changes in Latitude
  • New Class of Satellites Discovered As Moon Discovered Orbiting 10th Planet
  • Tenth Planet Has A Moon
  • NASA'S Pluto Space Probe Begins Launch Preparations

  • HETE-2 Satellite Solves Mystery Of Cosmic Explosions
  • It Takes Three Smithsonian Observatories To Decipher One Mystery Object
  • Our Three-Brane Existence
  • Pop Goes The Star

  • The Da Vinci Glow
  • NASA Selects Team To Build Lunar Lander
  • SMART-1 Set For More Lunar Science
  • Not Your Average Moonshot

  • Satellite Navigation to Play More Integral Role Due to Air and Waterway Crowding
  • Navman Expands Its GPS Receiver Product Line With The New Jupiter 21
  • CPS Partners To Play Key Role In Improving Galileo System Performance
  • Trimble Introduces Subfoot GPS Handheld For High-Accuracy Mapping

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement