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Completed TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 4)
Science and housekeeping data generated on a CubeSat can be collected for hours or days between opportunities to downlink, but each downlink window provides only a few minutes of time to transfer this data to the ground. Most transceivers which handle this task provide little buffering of this data, and when the C&DH processor has a slower serial link it limits the effective downlink rate of the transceiver. An integrated onboard mass storage and transceiver interface card would mitigate this limitation and allow downlink rates at the maximum rate of the transceiver while allowing the C&DH to forward downlink data over a slower serial interface.
A separate buffering solution such as the C-SaCC would facilitate the use of a greater variety of CubeSat radios by mitigating a potentially slower serial link from the C&DH. It would allow these slower serial interfaces to forward downlink data over time prior to the downlink pass. This would allow the downlink radio to operate at the full bit rate. This would provide greater flexibility in the selection of C&DH processors and transceivers. This would allow for optimizations that wouldn’t be possible with commercially available C&DH and radio products.
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