Deon graduated with a Master of Science in Materials Science and now works at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida.
He is the principle investigator of the following project, which he developed, at the
Cape:
S-Band frequencies (2.0 GHz to 4.0 GHz) used in the military and by the air traffic control towers around the world. This frequency bandwidth selected for surveillance and tracking objects from a great distance. Weather tracking systems on earth and in space can also give detail information about the weather conditions in the earth atmosphere. The echoes from the rain can significantly attenuate the range of the S-Band frequencies. Using this information, the effect the environment has on an S-Band microwave link over some distance, is studied. Temperature and humidity have attenuating effect on S-Band microwave links. Rising concern that attenuation or other link-loss phenomena exists on the south end of Runway 33, at the Shuttle Landing Facility, degrading the microwave link between the S-Band antennas on the shuttle and Merrit Island Launch Area (MILA). The study is to identify the unknown attenuating phenomena s. Many of these phenomena s are multipath among the trees, diffraction on the tree tops, and moisture in the atmosphere. The system designed and developed into two systems, transmitting and receiving, acquired data for a mathematical model used at Goddard Space Flight Center. The frequency used in the S-Band is a non-modulating carrier wave (CW). Data of temperature and humidity versus signal strength, at different elevation, collected and plotted over a long term comparative study.
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