 About
ACTS
With the launch of ACTS on September 12, 1993, a new and
award winning on-ramp to the information superhighway was
opened to heavy traffic. Offering significant, revolutionary
breakthroughs in satellite communications history, the Advanced
Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) was conceived as
a partnership project between NASA and industry. ACTS provided
a unique demonstration testbed for U.S. companies and institutions
to experiment with and validate advanced communications technologies.
[More history]
 A
Communications Pioneer
ACTS is the first all-digital, gigabit-capacity communication
satellite. Operating in the K- and Ka-frequency bands (20
GHz and 30 GHz, respectively), ACTS pioneered dynamic hopping
spot beams and advanced onboard traffic switching and processing.
Located in geostationary orbit, ACTS was the first satellite
with the ability to carry digital communications at standard
fiber-optic data rates with the same quality of transmission,
with the potential of added performance and cost advantages.
ACTS technology integrated with existing ground fiber-optic
systems for transmission of data at high rates of speed over
great distances and to the most remote locations.
ACTS Consortium
As of May 2001, usage of ACTS was transferred to a university-based
consortium called the Ohio
Consortium for Advanced Communications Technology (OCACT).
The consortium was organized by Ohio University in Athens,
Ohio. While NASA continues to provide for operations through
contractor staffing, the consortium fully reimburses NASA
for operations costs. This arrangement ensures that the satellite
remain available to support education and research opportunities
and still remain an experimental Ka-band platform over the
United States.
Project's Impact
 The
overwhelming success of ACTS continues to demonstrate NASA's
leadership role in pioneering advanced technologies for space
communications. The ACTS project set the stage for the evolution
of the information era and addressing the expanding need for
communications resources. ACTS technology showed the world
new ways to more efficiently allocate orbital and radio spectrum
resources, offer alternatives in voice, data and video communications
services at reasonable cost and provide these benefits regardless
of geographic location. The development of ACTS and its extensive
experiments program provided a national asset that benefited
us all.
Awards
The significance of ACTS technologies has been recognized
through various awards. ACTS was inducted into the Space
Technology Hall of Fame in April 1997 for its contributions
to the commercialization of space technology. ACTS was also
selected for 1995's R&D 100 Award in the Significant Technology
category and was the winner of the prestigious Federal Technology
Leadership Award.
More information:
| 
