Characterizing radio frequency (RF) noise in low earth orbit (LEO) is critical to developing accurate models of the radio environment for satellite communication systems and RF payloads. The…

This federal contract award, valued at $100,000.00, was issued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to The Research Foundation for the State University of New York (RF SUNY) through a Cooperative Agreement. The contract, part of NASA's BRIAN: Broad-Spectrum Radio Interference Analyzing Nanosatellite program, aims to develop a 3U CubeSat mission to characterize the radio frequency (RF) noise environment in low Earth orbit (LEO). The CubeSat will be developed by the University at Buffalo Nanosatellite Laboratory, with mentorship from the principal investigators, graduate students, and commercial partners such as Northrup Grumman. This contract does not have a set-aside designation, and the ultimate completion date is September 30, 2019.

Characterizing radio frequency (RF) noise in low earth orbit (LEO) is critical to developing accurate models of the radio environment for satellite communication systems and RF payloads. The proliferation of radio-based consumer devices has led to a large uncertainty in the noise levels to be expected in orbit. There is a need for experimental data to characterize this noise and to create a higher fidelity model of the noise-environment in LEO. We propose to develop a 3U cubesat mission to fly a software defined radio payload in order to characterize the background radio noise on commonly used cubesat bands. We will sample each RF band throughout the orbit to develop a temporal and spatial map of the RF noise environment, expecting the noise density to vary with population density and time of day. The cubesat will be developed by the university at buffalo nanosatellite laboratory, a multidisciplinary undergraduate lab with prior experience developing the glados cube- SAT mission for NASA s educational launch of nanosatellites and the air force research laboratory s university nanosatellite (UNP-8) programs. Mentorship of the undergraduate lab will be accomplished by the principal investigators, graduate students, and commercial partners such as northrup grumman in the form of hands-on design courses.