The Iris transponder is a small, low power deep-space

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

cubesat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSat ...

s. It unifies a number of communication functions - receiver, command detector, telemetry modulator, exciters, and control functions - into one 1.2-kg package that occupies about 0.5 U. Iris is designed to handle

X band The X band is the designation for a band of frequencies in the microwave radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some cases, such as in communication engineering, the frequency range of the X band is rather indefinitely set at approxi ...

uplink, UHF receive, and both

and optional

Ka band The Ka band (pronounced as either "kay-ay band" or "ka band") is a portion of the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum defined as frequencies in the range 26.5–40 gigahertz (GHz), i.e. wavelengths from slightly over one centime ...

downlink. It is only one third the mass, and lower power, compared to the smallest previous solution, the

Small Deep Space Transponder The Small Deep Space Transponder is a transponder designed by JPL specifically for deep space probes. It unifies a number of communication functions - receiver, command detector, telemetry modulator, exciters, beacon tone generator, and control ...

Functions

The capabilities of Iris include: *X-band receiver/downconverter capable of carrier tracking. *Command detector unit function. *Telemetry modulation function. *X-band exciter. *A matching X-band power amplifier and low-noise amplifier. *X-band ranging. *UHF (390-450 MHz) receiver for communication with landers/rovers. *Differential one-way ranging (DOR) at X-band. *Uplink: TC Space Data Link Protocol -

CCSDS The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) was founded in 1982 for governmental and quasi-governmental space agencies to discuss and develop standards for space data and information systems. Currently composed of "eleven member agenc ...

232.0-B-3 *Downlink: AOS Space Data Link Protocol =

732.0-B-3 *Supports codes Convolutional 7-1/2,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, Bi-Phase, and bypass ( NRZ), Reed Solomon (255,223),

Turbo code In information theory, turbo codes (originally in French ''Turbocodes'') are a class of high-performance forward error correction (FEC) codes developed around 1990–91, but first published in 1993. They were the first practical codes to closely ...

s with rates 1/2, 1/3, and 1/6 (block size 8920 bits) *Interface to rest of CubeSat electronics is through

Serial Peripheral Interface Bus The Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) is a synchronous serial communication interface specification used for short-distance communication, primarily in embedded systems. The interface was developed by Motorola in the mid-1980s and has become ...

, with a special hardwired output to reset the CubeSat.

Missions

* Mars Cube One * Lunar Flashlight * BioSentinel *

NEA Scout The Near-Earth Asteroid Scout (NEA Scout) was a mission by NASA to develop a controllable low-cost CubeSat solar sail spacecraft capable of encountering near-Earth asteroids (NEA). NEA Scout was one of ten CubeSats launched into a heliocentri ...

References

{{Reflist Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Functions

Missions

See also

References