Inter-Satellite Link Design for Nanosatellites in New Space

Abstract: New Space is a phrase used to describe the expanding commercialization into the areas of space, for instance the Low Earth Orbit at approximately 500 km altitude. This is due to the decrease in cost as the satellites are becoming smaller and the transport vehicles cheaper. This reduction of cost provide the opportunity for industry and researchers tosend up customized equipment to orbit with standardized smaller satellites, such as the nanosatellites. Many parts of the nanosatellites system are commercially available but some subsystems are dependent on the situation. One of which is the satellite to satellite communication, referred to as Inter-Satellite Link (ISL). This thesis aims To evaluate the feasibility of asystem that allow for ISL capability and the basic operations of a satellite. Two hypothetical mission designs, Earth Observation and Global Coverage, were used to simulate the restrictions and requirements of the subsystems together with Commercial Of the Shelf (COTS) equipment to consider the satellite system as a whole. The major principles of the Radio Frequency (RF) communication system and their low level components are investigated and discussed. The scope of this thesis were to present and evaluate the high system level of the satellite. Thus the results and discussion describe a theoretical system performance that could be achieved with suggestions of low level components and system configuration. Besides from the communication subsystem this thesis also includes theory of mission design, the satellite subsystems and external interactions to describe how it all affects the design work of the communication system. Conclusion of this work offers a versatile preliminary system design that is theoretically capable of limited ISL communications. Furthermore this thesis include the fundamental principles of the satellite system that can be used for further work or alternative mission designs.