Innovative Solutions in Nano and Pico-satellite Communications

This research activity develops in the rapidly and constantly growing field of avionics for small satellites. The relatively widespread availability of low-cost piggyback launch opportunities recently made feasible for a heterogeneous set of entities the access to orbit. Universities, industries, local governments and even amateurs, all became interested in space and the rather unique opportunities offered by its environment. This led to the development of a large number of nano and pico satellite missions, respectively with spacecrafts of mass lower than 10 kg and 1 kg. Such tiny satellites are usually built with commercially available electronic components not specifically qualified for the space environment, allowing for savings along the whole development cycle in recurring and non recurring costs. Design re use extends this approach to the system level, with an aggressive exploitation of existing technologies and, possibly, of space-flown architectures. Communication subsystems, a small but critical set of elements common to every mission, are not exempt from such a philosophy. On board networks, on-board transceivers and antennas, ground stations, and the protocols in between are primary requirements for a spacecraft mission, some of the most specialized and complex ones. Design re-use is then sought at every level, to the point of favoring “old and trusted” technologies in spite of lower performances and reduced flexibility. While this was acceptable for pioneer pico satellite missions, with the growth of scientific goals the traditional trade-offs are not appropriate anymore. Even further, the stream of innovations coming from the ground mobile market is not being adequately exploited and today outdated architectures set, rather than match, mission capabilities and achievable goals. The research aims at finding new solutions to common problems becoming prevalent in this field. Better trade-offs are needed in the ground and flight communication segments and in the elements linking them. Better performances are achievable with an increase in system complexity, always taking into account energy, mass and cost constraints.