High Bandwidth Redundant Communication Links for Small Satellites

The choke point for small satellites is the mission downlink. It is possible to deploy sensors on small satellites capable of capturing gigabytes of data per orbit, but there are no small, low-cost broadband transmitters capable of getting this enormous amount of data to the ground in a timely manner. This project will prove the feasibility of achieving downlink rates of 120 Mbps in the X-band (7.25-7.75 GHz) and 300 Mbps in the Ka-band (30-31 GHz). Innovations include adaptive coding and modulation to match the instantaneous bit rate to the time-varying signal-to-noise ratio as the satellite passes overhead.