All 2015 Content
Session
Technical Session VI: Ground Systems and Communications
Abstract
As 3U and 6U CubeSat missions begin to play a fundamental role in space science, advanced applications and even commercial utilization, there is a strong corresponding demand for higher data rates from even smaller fractions of the volume of a Cubesat envelope. Based on a concept outlined at this conference in 2012, a Ka-Band transmitter for Earth Exploration applications has now been developed and tested and this RF technology is now in-orbit; flying as a major demonstration in a 6U spacecraft. Since this technology is capable of providing tens of GBytes per day of downlinked data from a single 3U, 6U or 12U cubesat system, the future is even brighter. We will review in this presentation what has been accomplished to date, the challenges associated with using Ka-Band and where this technology is headed in the immediate future. This paper also demonstrates the effectiveness of Ka-Band for satellite interlinks (space-to-space relay) and the ultimate advantage of mmW to deep space communications using very small systems. A less obvious advantage of Ka-Band: spectrum management via spot beam frequency reuse is also of prime importance to the community. This aspect of mmW technology will also be examined and a plan for future spectrum utilization will be outlined.
Presentation
Ka-Band for CubeSats
As 3U and 6U CubeSat missions begin to play a fundamental role in space science, advanced applications and even commercial utilization, there is a strong corresponding demand for higher data rates from even smaller fractions of the volume of a Cubesat envelope. Based on a concept outlined at this conference in 2012, a Ka-Band transmitter for Earth Exploration applications has now been developed and tested and this RF technology is now in-orbit; flying as a major demonstration in a 6U spacecraft. Since this technology is capable of providing tens of GBytes per day of downlinked data from a single 3U, 6U or 12U cubesat system, the future is even brighter. We will review in this presentation what has been accomplished to date, the challenges associated with using Ka-Band and where this technology is headed in the immediate future. This paper also demonstrates the effectiveness of Ka-Band for satellite interlinks (space-to-space relay) and the ultimate advantage of mmW to deep space communications using very small systems. A less obvious advantage of Ka-Band: spectrum management via spot beam frequency reuse is also of prime importance to the community. This aspect of mmW technology will also be examined and a plan for future spectrum utilization will be outlined.
