NASA has been looking at approaches to perform meaningful science using small and low cost missions. SmallSat and CubeSat missions are very limited in the selection of high performance radios. In the last decade, it has become obvious that the need to downlink science data products from spacecraft has far exceeded the capability of currently available technology to deliver. This effort will provide a whole new class of radio systems for these missions.
The DoD and the commercial sector are the primary non-NASA customers. The DoD has been investing in Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) with a focus on tactical missions with a 2 year lifetime and very fast build cycles. The commercial market has been investing in numerous spacecraft in smaller sizes (e.g., OneWeb) with a focus on income generation from satellite generated data products. In the last decade, it has become obvious that the need to downlink data products from spacecraft has far exceeded the capability of currently available technology to deliver.
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