Miniaturized Radio Tranceiver for PocketQubes, Exceeding Performance of CubeSat Solutions
C.H. Broekhuizen (TU Delft - Space Systems Egineering)
S. Speretta (TU Delft - Space Systems Egineering)
Mehmet Şevket Uludag (TU Delft - Clean Room)
M.F. van den Bos (TU Delft - Space Systems Egineering)
J. Haenen (Student TU Delft)
Alessandra Menicucci (TU Delft - Space Systems Egineering)
Eberhard K A Gill (TU Delft - Space Engineering)
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Abstract
In this paper, a detailed design is presented of a communications module that is designed to fit tight PocketQube design budgets but still offer performance at least comparable to commercial off-the-shelf CubeSat solutions. The communications module features extremely efficient power usage, less than 2 Watt DC for 1 Watt RF output while fitting in an extremely small volume, (42 x 42 x 8mm, approximately a quarter of the volume of CubeSat solutions). Our system also features a new communication scheme based on Short Block LPDC codes that provides a very high code gain (approximately 6dB for hard-decision and 9dB for soft-decision) using a high code rate. A ground modem implementation based on GNURadio is also presented, taking advantage of a new implementation for low-latency asynchronous data transmission.