Glossary of Terms
- autonomous vehicles
- self-driving, robotic vehicles
- BeiDou
- China’s Navigation Satellite System
- C-RAN
- Cloud-Radio-Access-Network
- CD
- Conference on Disarmament
- CERT
- Computer Emergency Response Teams
- CI
- critical infrastructure
- COPUOS
- Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
- COTS
- commercial orbital transportation services
- cyber
- associated with computers and digital technologies
- cybersecurity
- the security of digital technologies and networks
- deconfliction
- adjusting the orbits of satellites to guard against collision
- denial of service [attack]
- an interruption, typically with malicious intent, in an authorized user’s access to a computer network; sometimes abbreviated to DoS; a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is when a DoS attack emanates from multiple sources
- downlink
- satellite-to-ground communication
- EEAS SAB
- European External Action Service Space Advisory Board
- EGNOS
- European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service
- encryption
- encoding messages accessible only to authorized parties
- Galileo
- Europe’s Global Satellite Navigation System
- GEO
- geostationary equatorial orbit
- geostationary orbit
- A geosynchronous orbit in which the satellite remains stationary over the same point on the earth’s surface at a height of 35,786 km above the equator
- geosynchronous orbit
- Orbit with a period equal to the earth’s rotational period
- GGE
- Group of Governmental Experts [United Nations]
- GLONASS
- Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System
- GNSS
- Global navigation satellite system
- GPS
- Global positioning system
- ground station
- a ground-based facility that communicates with satellites
- hacking
- exploiting weaknesses in cyber systems
- HAPS
- high-altitude pseudo-satellite
- ICS
- industrial control systems
- ICT
- information and communications technology
- InSAR
- Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar
- internet
- global system of interconnected computer networks
- internet of things
- internet connected devices that can communicate independently of the people using them
- IRNSS
- India’s Regional Navigation Satellite System (now NAVIC)
- ISS
- International Space Station
- ITAR
- International Trafficking in Arms Regulations
- ITU
- International Telecommunication Union
- jamming
- deliberately interfering with wireless communications
- Kessler Effect
- a cascade of LEO satellite collisions in which each collision generates space debris that further increases the probabilities of subsequent collisions
- LEO
- low Earth orbit (180–2,000 km)
- man-in-the-middle attack
- an attack in which communications between two parties are covertly intercepted and hacked
- MEMS
- micro electro-mechanical systems
- MIL-SPEC
- military specification
- M2M
- machine-to-machine
- NAVIC
- Navigation Indian Constellation (formerly called IRNSS)
- NOAA
- United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- payload
- the carrying capacity of a launch vehicle
- PNT
- positional, navigation and timing [information]
- polar orbit
- a highly inclined orbit in which the satellite moves around the Earth from pole to pole
- QZSS
- Quazi-Zenith Satellite System of Japan
- RAD-hard
- radiation-hardened
- remote sensing
- gathering information from a distance including from satellites
- SAR
- Synthetic Aperture Radar
- SATCOM
- satellite communications
- satellite
- an object in orbit
- satellite constellations
- group of satellites working in coordination
- SBAS
- satellite-based augmentation system
- SCADA
- supervisory control and data acquisition
- SIM
- subscriber identity module
- SIM toolkits
- standard of the GSM system that enables SIM-initiated actions (also called STK)
- space
- also called outer space; the universe beyond the earth’s atmosphere
- spoofing
- masquerade through the falsification of data
- supply chain
- system of activities and resources required to supply a product or service from producer to customer
- TCBM
- transparency and confidence-building measures
- UAS
- unmanned aircraft system
- uplink
- ground-to-satellite communication
- UN DC
- UN Disarmament Commission
- UNODA
- UN Office of Disarmament Affairs
- UN OOSA
- UN Office for Outer Space Affairs