Utilizing Cubesat Architecture and Innovative Low-Complexity Devices to Repurpose Decommissioned Apertures for RF Communications

The DARPA Phoenix project aims to repurpose decommissioned satellites to utilize available on orbit resources. As part of the demo mission a decommissioned Geostationary Orbit (GEO) communication satellite will be captured and with the aid of Satlets (small, specialized satellites) will have one of its apertures repurposed to enable a new communications system for Earth. The following paper summarizes the efforts of creating a Satlet that is capable of interfacing with an on-orbit radio aperture. Also covered are methods for keeping this specialized “RF-Satlet” proposed from Aurora low cost and complexity able to deal with a wide range of possible communication frequencies and needs.