Estimation of Communication Link on Ground Sensor Terminal (GST) System for Nanosatellite (UiTMSAT-1) Store-and-Forward Mission

Abstract

This paper presents the estimated communication link budget for the developed Ground Sensor Terminal (GST) to support the BIRDS-2 cubesat’s Store-and-Forward (S&F) demonstration. The communication link is between a ground terminal and nanosatellites that are situated at LEO orbit. The proposed link budget calculates the attenuation parameters such as FSPL, satellite slant distance, antenna mismatch and others to ensure the communication link can be established properly. As to conclude the estimation on communication link, the Uplink margin and Downlink margin per two elevation angle values are presented.