Regenerative Communication Satellites Developments in Europe: Past, Present and Future

[Abstract] Communication satellites are the work horse of space industry. The revenues of broadcast satellite services are the major contributor to the total space industry revenues. More than 80 % of the launches are performed to place communication satellites in orbit. A state of the art communications satellite is carrying transparent transponders to illuminate a large coverage area. The idea of replacing the transparent transponders by regenerative transponders is old and several years ago, was limited by the available technology. Advances in semiconductor technology have allowed implement and fly very advanced digital signal processing equipment on satellites. The first regenerative transponder developed in Europe was launched on the Italian satellite Italsat. About a decade ago, the first regenerative transponder, named Skyplex, was launched on a commercial European communication satellite Hot Bird 4. A whole family of Skyplex units were launched, including the first turbo decoder flown on a satellite. Another very advanced regenerative payload was developed and launched on another European communication satellite, Amazonas 1, which is providing coverage of Europe, North America and South America. This payload, named AmerHis, is receiving uplink signals according to the DVB-RCS standard and transmits DVB-S signals. The regenerative payload allows switching any uplink signal to any downlink signal. This paper will discuss the technical concepts of these regenerative payloads and will provide an outlook of a potential broadband communication satellite using regenerative transponders.