Development of W-Band Millimeter-Wave Links for Nanosat Applications
Abstract
Nanosats have evolved from an educational platform allowing universities to develop cost effective flight-ready spacecraft to standard platforms which allow for advanced technology demonstrations. Most Nanosats are used for earth science observation including optical, infrared, and microwave imaging for things such as atmospheric properties including clouds and precipitation, land topography and soil moisture, ocean surface salinity and temperature, snow and ice cover, and gravity and magnetic field monitoring. Most Nanosats occupy the low earth orbit (LEO) at 500 km above the earth, with the ceiling at 2180 km. All of these remote sensing applications generate large amounts of data, which require a SATCOM downlink with high data rates. Although wideband SATCOM links do exist currently, spectrum demand is only increasing. Many researchers have proposed using the millimeter-wave frequency band for SATCOM because it is relatively uncrowded and allows for high fractional bandwidths. In fact, as recently as 2014, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has put out a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to study the feasibility of W/V-Band Satellite Communications. The study was completed and the results were published by NASA Glenn Research Center and by Georgia Tech. University. The study was for SATCOM in the geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO) which is 35,786 km above the earthÕs equator, and therefore the link requirements are more stringent. Finally, the European Space Agency (ESA) has proposed its first W-Band SATCOM workshop in April of 2015, which shows the strong potential and mutual interest in development of this frequency band.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 10, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141612166
Entities
People
- Satish K. Sharma
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies
- United States Navy