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The radio frequency band that many NASA missions use to communicate with spacecraft — S-band — is getting a bit crowded and noisy, and likely to get more [congested] as science missions demand higher and higher data rates.
A team of NASA technologists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, just may have a solution, particularly for potential missions that plan to operate in low-Earth orbit and have limited real estate to accommodate communications gear.
Under two different research and development projects, technologists Mae Huang and Victor Marrero-Fontanez have collaborated to test and verify components of a prototype end-to-end Ka-band space communications system, which promises significantly higher data rates — a whopping 2.4 gigabits of data per second (Gbps) — over more traditional S-band systems, which theoretically could achieve data rates of 90 megabits of data per second (Mbps).
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-02/nsfc-ntd021715.php
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Thursday February 19 2015, @07:37PM
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Thursday February 19 2015, @07:54PM
Probably just leverage the cheap and plentiful flash storage now available and just buffer data and downlink it at the data rate with the best error corrected throughput and when that is lower than the rate data is being acquired just let the flash hold onto it until conditions improve, Most data collected from NASA missions takes years to study anyway, waiting a few days now and again when there is bad weather isn't a problem.
Probably wouldn't want to take that attitude with a real time project like a weather observation sat. and communications relays are right out.
(Score: 4, Informative) by cmn32480 on Thursday February 19 2015, @07:58PM
According to the Rain Attenuation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_fade/ [wikipedia.org]) wikipedia article linked to the the KaBand artilce linked to in the summary, upping the transmit power should overcome the rain attenuation.
Meteor showers... well that is a whole different ball game.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JeanCroix on Thursday February 19 2015, @09:20PM
(Score: 1) by hopp on Friday February 20 2015, @02:00AM
If the attenuation is at the far end of the path it has a lower bearing on overall attenuation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 19 2015, @09:29PM
On a product I used to write software for we used Ka band for data. The truck drivers would say 'ill just put a bucket over it'. We would tell them 'only if you do not mind never having children and probably cancer'. :) And yes it worked pretty good in the rain. Not so much with an inch of plastic/metal/fiberglass in the way...
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday February 20 2015, @02:07AM
They already use K band for several missions, as the story mentions. Its not totally new.
I read it as developing radios for rovers and orbiters to communicate back to earth.
Its not clear they were going to use it as down links. (Although they could on most days since NASA has a pretty wide choice of ground station to choose from.) The TDRS-L [wikipedia.org] sat launched last year already has K band capability as did TDRS-11 before it.
They would have the luxury of band shifting down to S multiple band transmitters for the downlinks.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.