The geostationary orbit is becoming congested due to use by several countries throughout the world, and the request for use of this orbit is increasing. There are 188 geostationary stations in operation. An equitable distribution of stations on this orbit is requested

Medina, E. R.

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NASA TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM
	
NASA TM-76891
THE GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT AND DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES
E. Rodriguez Medina
Translation of "La Orbita Geostacionaria Y Los Paices En
Desarrollo", (Paper presented at the United Nations'
Regional Seminar on Space Applications organized in
preparation for the Second United Nations' Confer-
ence on the Exploration and Utilization of Outer
Space for Peaceful Purposes, Quito, Ecuador,
19-23 April 1982) (UNISPACE 82), Colombia,
1982, pp 1-9
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"La Orbita Geostacionaria y Los Paises en Desarrollo",
(Paper presented at the United Nations' Regional Seminar on
Space Applications organized in preparation for the Second
United Nations' Conference on the Exploration and Utilization
of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes, Quito, Ecuador, 19-23
April 1982)	 (UNISPACE 82), Colombia,	 1982, pp 1-9
It is shown that the geostationary orbit is
becoming congested due to use by several
countries throughout the world, and the
request for use of this orbit is increasing.
The International Telecommunications Union
has reported that there are 188 geostationary
stations in operation.
	 A desire is expressed
for an equitable distribution of stations
on this orbit.
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THE GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT AND
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (COLOMBIA)
Ernest Rodriguez Medina
We cannot but express our pleasure at the interest
	 ir1
shown in this Seminar on the topic of the Synchronous Geo-
stationary Space. Things could not be otherwise, since it has
become one of the most relevant, transcendent and vital areas
of the Unispace 82 agenda. The draft of the Final Report of
this Conference acknowledges explicitly indeed that we are
dealing with a limited natural resource of vital importance for
space applications, and therefore its use must be regulated and
planned.
For many years now, Colombia and the Equatorial countries
have been calling the attention of the world to the danger of a
saturation of the Geostationary Orbit and its spectrum and have
also denounced the monopolistic usurpation of the resource by
the great technological powers on the basis of the principle of
"first come, first served" questioned a few minutes ago by Pro-
fessor Dieter Felske himself.
Nevertheless, our intervention is motivated by the desire to
present a few specifications which we consider indispensable for
such a highly qualified audience as the one constituting this
seminar, to establish a valid criterion on the important topic
which preoccupies us.
*Numbers in margin indicate foreign pagination	 1
ORIGENP11 PACE 1s
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From the scientific point of view, the Equatorial
countries consider that the Synchronous Geostationary Orbit (O.S.G.)
(O.S.Q.) represents a physical entity related to the reality	 /2,
of our planet, since its existence depends exclusively on
its relation to the gravitational phenomena caused by the Earth.
That is why we consider that it must be separated from ultra-
terrestrial space. It is apparent that its physical and techni-
cal attributes are unique and are subject only to those pheno-
mena taking place only in the Equatorial plane passing through
the Equatorial countries.
We claim this planning and this regulation because the geo-
stationary orbit as a limited resource is becoming congested and
is being occupied with an "appropriation" criterion of the slots
(places) alleging priority of use. Meanwhile the request for
the use of services has increased; the technological trends,
instead of preserv'ng the orbit, are saturating it and causing
interferences, and what is most serious, there is no possibility
of redistributing the orbital positionz as temporarily assigned
by the ITU.
But since we are among technicians and scientists, we would
like to demonstrate practically our assertions. Let us con-	 /3
sider the following:
The Demand is Increasing
In its Twenty-First Report, the International Telecommunica-
tions Union mentions that the updated list of geostationary sta-
tions, with settled orbital position, has already reached 1381.'
A study conducted by NASA itself has come to the conclusion
that the international demand for satellite communications will
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be increasing ten-fold between 1982 and the year 2000. Other
specialized publications, analyzing the increasing effort to
obtain facilities for satellite communication, as compared with
the present supply, calculated that in the next decade there
would be requests for the use of 2,000 transponders. A satel-
lite of the telecommunication type has today 12 transponders.
The successful Space Shuttle system will be tripling the num-
ber of geostationary satellites during the decade. It will also
be able to install large geostationary platforms which would have
greater capacity, mass and power. For the rest, the technolo-
gical tendency to use increasingly numerous and powerful satel-
lites for domestic use, maritime control, private activities
and cable television will aggravate an already critical situa-
tion.
The demand has become so apparent that the United States Fed-
eral - - Communications Commission itself proposed to reduce to half
the space between satellites, decreasing from 4 to 2 the lon-
gitude of separation of slots on the orbital arc.
In 1985, in accordance with the predictions of COMSAT, it is
calculated that more than 50 additional satellites will be placed
on the Geostationary Arc. The scientific director of COMSAT
himself, Mr. Walter Morgan, describes to us the situation:
"For years there were no major problems: suddenly the demand
exceeded the supply and everybody wants to get onto th6 carousel.
We have reached a point when interested parties are fighting for
the same location on the orbit." This ;struggle has converted
the orbital geostationary arc into a real business of settled
real estate. The increased value of the slots and the leasing
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of transponders has reached astronomical figures.
Herein lies the cause of one of the facts which demonstrate
best that the O.S.G. is a resource which has a danger of satura-
tion and depletion by congestion: Why does one degree in the
geostationary orbit have such a high value, while a degree in
the elliptical or heliosynchronous orbits have no significant
commercial value?
The Technological Tendency Will Permit the Geostationar Orbit
f--AT-sorb^he Increase In Demand
This cannot be asserted, for two reasons:
a. The technology to extend the capacity of the orbit, inclu-
ding the use of higher bands, is very costly and the pro-
jects are still chimerical.
b. The budget allocated by the powers to technological research
has decreased, not only because of financial cutbacks, but
inflation of costs.
On the contrary, the present technological trends are for trans-
mission with digital signals. But the experts consider that the	 /5
UIT has not appreciated the fact that these technological trends
may rapidly render useless the allocation plans based on services.
While digital technology underlies all the UIT strategy of
regulation based on services, the technology of " Spot beams" is
causing the disappearance of the distinction between the ser-
vices of radiobroadcasting and fixed satellites,the two compe-
titors for orbital positions and the allocation of frequencies
in the 12 GHz band. This technique is going to need real con-
stellations of satellites and distribution systems, to be able
4
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to share efficiently the width of the band. This does not
mention further integrated circuits, another technological
trend which erodes the regulations by service of the UIT.
Large scale integration permits the programming of the cir-
cuits in such a manner as to achieve a wide frequency range.
And what can we say of the technology planning to indus-
trialize space and to use it with programs of scaled economy?
A single space platform for solar energy would have 50 K2.
Redistribution of Orbital Positions
A study conducted by the UNO in preparation for the UNISPACE
82 Conference, informs us "that because of limitations with re-
gard to satellite sites, they are not distributed uniformly over
the Geostatiorary Orbit, and it is unlikely that they can 	 /6
be so in the future".
It is clear that this is impossible as things are now. The
problem of congestion has become critical in areas of dense inter-
national traffic.
In the Western hemisphere and the Atlantic Ocean, in the are
between 4 and 150 degrees longitude, 44 satellites are stationed!
Not to speak of other segments which are equally saturated for
identical reasons. And what can we say of the most often used
frequencies? We need only refer to the same list of satellite
stations of the UIT to see that most of them operate at 4/6 GHz:
the "most pure", "clean" and most economically accessible one.
The other bands do not guarantee the same quality, unless costly
and sophisticated equipment is used.
But the most serious element in the problem resides in the
practical appropriation that the technological powers have made
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of the slots in the orbit. They have arrived there to stay:
They talk of provisional orbital positions, but the truth is
that when a satellite completes its years of service (seven
on the average) it is replaced by another operated for the
same interests and belonging to the same owner.
Thus a technological monopoly has been established taking
over the preferred sites of the O.S.G. and remaining indefin-
itely in them.
This is technological development without either technical
planning or legal regulation which allows the consolidation
of this usurpation.
The Equatorial countries do not claim that technology must
be frozen, nor that right be converted into a barrier to
scientific development.
What we want is for order to be established and account be
taken of an equitable distribution of the orbital segment,
taking into consideration the increasing future needs of the
world and the legitimate interests of the countries located un-
der the orbital arc.
We must preserve the orbit for our developing countries,
whose scientific and technological development do not permit
present access under conditions equal to those of the techno-
logical powers.
There is one item of information on technological development
which speaks for itself: out of 4,643 space objects now in
active operation, 2,697 belong to the United States; 1,786 to
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the Soviet Union; 42, to Japan; 32, to France; while only 7,
2 from Indonesia and 5 from India, belong to the Third World.
We can understand that the equitable use of the O.S.G. has
become a need of the developing countries.
The Equatorial countries will have no satisfaction if with-
in two decades, in the absence of the regulations requested, the
120 developing countries are obliged to struggle under dis-
advantageous conditions in the face of serious facts to attempt
to free themselves from the dependencies and inequalities created
in the economic and commercial field.
In the year 2000 it will not be easy to fight for a New Inter-
national Space Order, just as today it is never easy to achieve J8
a New World Economic Order anywhere.
Martin Luther King has a sentence which sheds light on the
route we must take:
"We will never be able to climb up, if we do not bend our back."
Quito, 22 April 1982
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APPENDIX
The graph established by the "American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics" shows clearly the density of
the present occupation of the orbit by geostationary satel-
lites.
8


The geostationary orbit and developing countries

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