Design and flight results of the VHF/UHF communication system of Longjiang lunar microsatellites.


Journal

Nature communications
ISSN: 2041-1723
Titre abrégé: Nat Commun
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101528555

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
09 07 2020
Historique:
received: 30 01 2020
accepted: 19 06 2020
entrez: 11 7 2020
pubmed: 11 7 2020
medline: 11 7 2020
Statut: epublish

Résumé

As a part of China's Chang'e-4 lunar far side mission, two lunar microsatellites for low frequency radio astronomy, amateur radio and education, Longjiang-1 and Longjiang-2, were launched as secondary payloads on 20 May 2018 together with the Queqiao L2 relay satellite. On 25 May 2018, Longjiang-2 successfully inserted itself into a lunar elliptical orbit of 357 km × 13,704 km, and became the smallest spacecraft which entered lunar orbit with its own propulsion system. The satellite carried the first amateur radio communication system operating in lunar orbit, which is a VHF/UHF software defined radio (SDR) designed for operation with small ground stations. This article describes and evaluates the design of the VHF/UHF radio and the waveforms used. Flight results of the VHF/UHF radio are also presented, including operation of the radio, performance analysis of downlink signals and the first lunar orbit UHF very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) experiment.

Identifiants

pubmed: 32647144
doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17272-8
pii: 10.1038/s41467-020-17272-8
pmc: PMC7347839
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

3425

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Auteurs

Mingchuan Wei (M)

Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 92 Xidazhi Street, 150001, Harbin, China.

Chaoran Hu (C)

Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 92 Xidazhi Street, 150001, Harbin, China.

Daniel Estévez (D)

Oceano Atlantico 38, Tres Cantos, 28760, Madrid, Spain.

Mier Tai (M)

Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 92 Xidazhi Street, 150001, Harbin, China.

Yuhao Zhao (Y)

Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 92 Xidazhi Street, 150001, Harbin, China.

Jiahe Huang (J)

Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 92 Xidazhi Street, 150001, Harbin, China.

Cees Bassa (C)

C.A. Muller Radio Astronomy Station, Oude Hoogeveensedijk 4, 7991 PD, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands.
ASTRON, Netherlands Insititute for Radio Astronomy, Oude Hoogeveensedijk 4, 7991 PD, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands.

Tammo Jan Dijkema (T)

C.A. Muller Radio Astronomy Station, Oude Hoogeveensedijk 4, 7991 PD, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands.
ASTRON, Netherlands Insititute for Radio Astronomy, Oude Hoogeveensedijk 4, 7991 PD, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands.

Xibin Cao (X)

Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 92 Xidazhi Street, 150001, Harbin, China. xbcao@hit.edu.cn.

Feng Wang (F)

Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 92 Xidazhi Street, 150001, Harbin, China. wfhitsat@hit.edu.cn.

Classifications MeSH