Low power LoRa transmission in low earth orbiting satellites

Abstract

In the recent past, a modulation technique called "LoRa" has become popular in the communication industry due to its long range capabilities with low power consumption, a few satellites have carried LoRa and worked successfully inspite of being skeptical about Doppler shift, packet loss, etc. This paper discusses the preliminary results of LoRa communications established from a recently launched cubesat. Satish Dhawan Satellite (SD Sat) is a 3U Cubesat built by Space kidz India, weighing 1.9 kg, it carried a radiation counter and magnetometer as its payload. It carried a LoRa transmitter which transmits beacon at 100 mW. It is also transmitting FSK RTTY and CW RTTY. The satellite was launched into sunsynchronous orbit at 510 x 498 km. Multiple ground stations around the world have confirmed the signal reception.