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Ok, I'll hit you with 3 questions: 1. What bandwidth capacity are you aiming for per spacecraft? 2. Are you using commercial or rad hard parts? 3. Is there a
by planteen 9y ago
Ok, I'll hit you with 3 questions:
1. What bandwidth capacity are you aiming for per spacecraft?
2. Are you using commercial or rad hard parts?
3. Is there a deployable antenna that makes the spacecraft larger than 3'x3'x3'?
- ttul 9y agoLet’s see: they’re spending tens of millions of dollars to put something into geostationary orbit that will presumably last there for years. I’m thinking they’re probably using radiation hardened parts.
- analognoise 9y agoAs someone who has done rad hard fpga design as well as radiation testing of components, I can say: that's too bad. Rad hard parts are so behind commercial, and have such high unit costs (RTG4 is ~90k each, 300krad TID), and the verification is grueling. It's fun to see your stuff leave the planet, though.
- planteen 9y agoMaybe. If I remember correctly, the total ionizing dose (TID) at GEO is around double what it is at LEO. There are more single event effects (SEE) at GEO which would have to be handled. Most small sats at LEO use commercial parts and can operate for many years. The original Iridium constellation used commercial parts, though in LEO.
- gedmark 9y ago1. Our first design has a capacity of up to 10 Gbps. And we have a technical roadmap that can significantly increase that in future spacecraft designs. 2. For various reasons it doesn't make sense to go into that level of detail on a public forum. 3. Yes.