TeraLink-1

The Satellite: TeraLink-1

The NeedCurrently there is band and frequency crowding on the currently used channels. The THz frequency range (officially accepted to be 0.1-2 THz) offers a wide bandwidth of frequencies in the high-frequency range of the RF spectrum. This means more individual channels can be established and the data communicated through them can be done faster. Applying THz to space-ground communication is a step towards helping establish a reliable (in the face of natural disasters or other threats) internet connectivity for everyone. It also provides another alternative avenue to Free Space Optics which requires high poitnign accuracy and often struggles due to atmospheric absorption and scintillation or scattering events, thereby lacking reliability.

Mission OverviewThis 6U satellite aims to establish a sub-THz access Link (UL and DL) to/from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to enable high-speed reliable communication between ground and space. This mission will do so by using a custom Terahertz half-duplex radio which will interface with an in-house built ground station Terahertz antenna.

Unique Challenges of TeraLink-1

Pointing requirements and thus ADCS
Power constraints (ideally maximum of 80 Watts to remain ISS deployment compliment) yet the sub-THz radio is very power hungry (with buffer estimating 35-45 W)
Size (the radio payload relies on waveguide components whose size cannot be reduced and in total the payload takes up >3U of space

Mission ObjectivesMO-1: Create a sub-THz downlink from the CubeSat MO-2: Achieve high bit-rate sub-THz communication in the downlink directionMO-3: Create a sub-THz uplink with the CubeSat.MO-4: Achieve high bit-rate sub-THz communication in the uplink direction. Minimum Success Criteria

Detect an SNR > 3 dB for an unmodulated carrier signal sent from the CubeSat and received by the sub-THz ground receiver

Full Success Criteria

Minimum success is achieved as well as the following:
- Achieve a 1 Gbps transmission with a bit error rate BER < 10-4 during a downlink.
- Detect an SNR > 3 dB for an unmodulated carrier signal at the sub-THz CubeSat receiver
- Achieve a 1 Gbps transmission with a bit error rate BER < 10-4 during an uplink

Personal Contributions

Copy of Data Budget and Initial Requirements

Data Budget Analysis

Perform reviews for budgets, requirements, and designs as the Chief Engineer and the Command and Data Handling (CDH) subsystem lead
Design and write mission statements, mission objectives, success criteria (minimum and full), along with mission and experiment plans

- Presented the mission and satellite design for a 4-hour system concept review to receive feedback on what can be improved on, fixed and the best next steps to take

University Nanosatellite Program

Engaged and learned from an intensive satellite systems design workshop event hosted by the University Nanosatellite Program (UNP) in Albuquerque New Mexico
- practiced and later presented our mission statements, objectives, success criteria, requirements, and budgets for a practice satellite
- Learned about the missions of 11 other universities and learned about the experiences of the students that are involved

Systems Concept Review

Presented (as a group of 5 students) a 4-hour SCR (Systems Concept Review) with a judges panel providing feedback on mission and satellite design

Prepared and presented the satellite mission and design during a review and received feedback from a group of professional judges and experts
Presented on the channel sounding experiment
- - Why do you need a pseudo-random signal?
  - How can you mathematically derive the channel impulse response when you know the transmitted and received signal using the autocorrelation function?

What are In-Phase and Quadrature components (IQ) of signals, and why do we care about them when it comes to acquiring payload data?
Presented the major parts of the payload
- - sub-THz antennas
  - analog front ends
  - digital baseband electronics including the RFSoC

Presented Satellite Mission at a RISE Poster Exhibition

RISEPosterPresentationTeraLink.pdf

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