I’ve been tracking and monitoring the STRaND-1 satellite during last few weeks before it became silent at March 31.
I was so impressed from its down-link signal strength and quality. I have no idea how much power it was pumping? I guessed around 500mw or more!
Considering my average ground station setup as a reference, I should say that the 3unit cubesat provides more than enough power to drive high speed data link .
could be there enough power to drive a Liner transponder?!
what will be the overall efficiency of the transponder on board 3U cubesat?
And what methods taken during the design to eliminate the power-hog ?
A Multi AGC channels or LEILA ?
I hope more modern technique been used to handle and equally bending the Nano-satellite transponder power. It is still QRP transponder ! comparing to a Micosat transponder.
*TURKSAT-3USAT is a new Nano-satellite with linear transponder planned to launch on April 26, 2013 into a 680 km Low Earth Orbit .
*STRaND-1 the first UK 3 Unit CubeSat, STRaND-1, was launched on February 25 into a 785 km orbit .