Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
The first two US/UK co-operative satellites, Ariel 1 and Ariel 2, were put into orbit in April 1962 and March 1964, and both functioned most successfully. The lecture describes the NASA Pulsed Frequency Modulated telemetry system, including the methods used to store and transmit the data to ground stations, the digitising techniques used to prepare these data for entry into a computer and, finally, the organisation of the central data handling operations to the point where the partially or wholly reduced results were handed over to the various experimenters for analysis.