Session
Technical Poster Session 3: Communications
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
In 2008, Florida International University researchers proposed the world's first Cubesat to Commercial Satellite Network Inter-Satellite Link and created a payload, called PicoPanther, to move data from Cubesats to the Iridium Network. In the years following, dozens of satellites have used the Cubesat to Iridium/Globalstar payload concept and the amount of constellations in Orbit that can be used for Cubesat Inter-satellite links have grown. Cubesats using commercial constellations for communications have the benefit of near instant communication with their Cubesats for health monitoring and data transfer without relying on a global network of gateways. This poster describes software that maximizes Cubesat to Commercial Inter-satellite link contact time under user programmable constraints and automates link decision choices for Cubesats that have multiple constellations in view. The software methods described are applied to a variety of constellation choices currently available and planned.
Optimizing Communications for Cubesats to Commercial Constellations
Utah State University, Logan, UT
In 2008, Florida International University researchers proposed the world's first Cubesat to Commercial Satellite Network Inter-Satellite Link and created a payload, called PicoPanther, to move data from Cubesats to the Iridium Network. In the years following, dozens of satellites have used the Cubesat to Iridium/Globalstar payload concept and the amount of constellations in Orbit that can be used for Cubesat Inter-satellite links have grown. Cubesats using commercial constellations for communications have the benefit of near instant communication with their Cubesats for health monitoring and data transfer without relying on a global network of gateways. This poster describes software that maximizes Cubesat to Commercial Inter-satellite link contact time under user programmable constraints and automates link decision choices for Cubesats that have multiple constellations in view. The software methods described are applied to a variety of constellation choices currently available and planned.
