Towards the next generation of nanosatellite communication systems

The communication systems currently used on nanosatellites are usually well-proven commercial-off-the-shelf units with data rates up to 9.6 kbps. A careful analysis shows that by using advancements in microelectronics, a higher communication performance can be achieved, even within the power and mass limitations of a nanosatellite. This paper presents a new approach to maximize the performance of nanosatellite communication systems by taking a systems engineer’s perspective and by regarding the entire satellite instead of the communication system only. It is found that efficiency can be gained by also including the electrical power system in the design. The parameters that influence the performance of the communication system are identified. It is shown how these parameters can be tuned such that the limited resources on a nanosatellite are used most effectively. The results are used in designing the communication system of Delfi-n3Xt, the next nanosatellite mission of Delft University of Technology. The results presented in the paper can be used as a guideline to designing a nanosatellite of the next generation