Effective Link Budget for Nanosatellite (UiTMSAT-1) Communication Subsystem Store-and-Forward Mission

Abstract

This paper presents the Effective Link Budget for Nanosatellite (UiTMSAT-1) Communication Subsystem. The main objective of this design is to succeed in the Store-and-forward Mission for BIRDS-2 Project. The nanosatellite consists of several subsystems such as Electrical Power System (EPS), Communication system, Command and Data Handling system, Thermal system and few more which is important to establish the CubeSat functionality once launch into the LEO orbit. The communication subsystem link the CubeSat to the Ground Sensor Terminal (GST) through VHF frequency. Thus, an effective Link Budget analysis study is important to guarantee the communication can be established appropriately to minimize the signal losses and achieve the minimum connection requirement between the CubeSat and GST. The proposed link budget calculates the attenuation parameters such as satellite slant distance, Free-space Path Loss (FSPL), antenna polarization loss and others to make sure the communication link can be established properly. Therefore, the downlink and uplink margin for three different elevation angles are presented.