9. Space Data Transmission

In this module, the student acquires knowledge about concepts that play a fundamental role in space digital communication systems. In the first part of the module, the main subsystems composing a wireless digital communication scheme are reviewed and fundamental concepts such as spectrum and bandwidth, modulation and demodulation, symbol rate, bit error rate, are overviewed. In the second part of the module, the above concepts are exploited to introduce and analyze the link budget. The concepts of antenna gain, free space path loss, and signal-to-noise ratio are addressed in the second part of the module. Examples are provided for actual space missions such as Voyager, Rosetta, ExoMars, etc.

The module will enable students to perform a link budget in a scientific space mission. The high-level learning objectives include:

• Understanding the performance metrics in space communication links;
• Understanding the fundamental relationship between the transmitted and the received power in a space link;
• Capability to prepare a link budget and calculate the power margin in a space link;
• Understanding the trade-off between performance and spectral efficiency.