Preliminary Design of the Naval Postgraduate School Petite Amateur Navy Satellite (PANSAT) Electric Power and Communications Subsystems

The Naval Postgraduate School's (NPS) Space Systems Academic Group (SSAG) is continuing the design and development of the Petite Amateur Navy Satellite (PANSAT), a small communications satellite. The objectives of PANSAT are to provide: (i.) an educational tool for the officer students at NPS, (ii.) digital communications using spread spectrum in the amateur band, and (iii.) a low cost, space-based platform for small experiments. PANSAT is designed for an altitude of 480 km and an inclination greater than 28.5. The satellite weight is 150 Ibs and has no attitude control. The expected life of the satellite is 2 years. This paper discusses the preliminary design of the electrical power subsystem (EPS) and the communications subsystem (COMM). The BPS is a photovoltaic silicon cell system consisting of solar array, batteries, battery charge regulator (BCR) and DC to DC converters. The COMM payload uses direct sequence spread spectrum modulated BPSK with a 1 MHz bandwidth. The data rate is 1200 bps with a bit error rate of 10-5 with a 5 Watt output.