Nanosatellite Communications

Schaire, Scott H., NASA; Altunc, Serhat, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr.; Wong, Yen F., NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr.; Shelton, Marta B.; Kegege, Obadiah, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr.; Roberts, Christopher J., NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr.; Dasgupta, Yudhajeet, Univ. of Michigan; Faler, Wesley, Fluid & Reason, LLC; Celeste, Peter B., Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.; Perrotto, Patricia R., Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.

doi:10.1117/3.2618157.ch18

Book: The Nanosatellite Revolution: 30 Years and Continuing

Editor(s): Henry Helvajian; Siegfried W. Janson

Chapter Author(s): Scott Schaire, Serhat Altunc, Yen Wong, Marta Shelton, Obadiah Kegege, Christopher Roberts, Yudhajeet Dasgupta, Wesley Faler, Peter Celeste, Patricia Perrotto

Published: 2023

https://doi.org/10.1117/3.2618157.ch18

Author Affiliations +

Abstract

The NASA Near Earth Network (NEN) project consists of globally distributed tracking stations, including NASA, commercial, and partner ground stations, that are strategically located to maximize the coverage provided to a variety of orbital and suborbital missions, including those in low Earth orbit (LEO), geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), highly elliptical orbit (HEO), lunar orbit and Lagrange point L1/L2 orbits. Analyses involving the NEN have applicability to other ground station networks. Our studies addressed nanosatellite direct-to-ground communication and nanosatellite constellations with a mother-ship direct-to-ground communication.