Antarctic Broadband Ka-band technology at European Cubesat Symposium

Antarctic Broadband program systems engineer, Mr Daniel Faber, today presented to the 4th European Cubesat Symposium in Brussels on the use of Ka-band communications for cubesats and other nanosats. His abstract and presentation noted that the expanding range of viable applications for nanosats, including broadband communications, optical and radar sensors, demands higher capacity than the VHF, UHF and S-band communications typically used by nanosats today. The presentation went on to describe the Ka-band work done under the Antarctic Broadband program, including our plans to fly a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) demonstrator mission using a Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB)-class spacecraft from the University of Toronto Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) and a Ka-band transponder developed by EM Solutions Pty Ltd of Brisbane.

The Antarctic Broadband consortium is planning our demonstration mission and is also looking for organisations around the World who might have a requirement for a nanosat-class Ka-band communications capability.