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Heritage & Experience

Heritage and Experience is an integral component of a successful team.  Check out our product successes below and some of our prior experience and published papers.  We are always adding to this list so please contact us for more information.

X-Band 1kW Radar SSPA RF-Deck

Launch Years: 2024 on multiple spacecraft.

Highlight: Radar high power SSPA, successfully launched and currently in operation.

Approximate Dimensions: 16.5cm (W) x 16.5cm (L) x 2.5cm (H) / 6.5in (W) x 6.5in (L) x 1in (H)

Peak Output Power: 1kW saturated.

Gain: ≈58dB large signal.

Bandwidth: 700MHz​

Ka-Band Up/Down Converter & Frequency Synthesizer Subsystem 

Launch Years: 2023 on multiple spacecraft.

Highlight: Radar LO and Ka-Band Converter, successfully launched and currently in operation.

Approximate Dimensions: 18.8cm (W) x 16.8cm (L) x 8.6cm (H) / 7.4in (W) x 6.6in (L) x 3.4in (H)

Ka Downconverter: 3.5dB typ. NF, 43dB nom. Gain

Ka Upconverter: 20dB Gain, +6dBm nom. P1dB 

Frequency Synthesizer: 10MHz OCXO, S-Band and Ku-Band phase-locked outputs, low SSB phase noise

X-Band Radar LNA

Launch Years: 2020 to present on multiple spacecraft.

Highlight: Radar receiver LNA, successfully launched and currently in operation.

Approximate Dimensions: 4cm (W) x 4.7cm (L) x 2.1cm (H) / 1.6in (W) x 1.9in (L) x 0.9in (H)

Noise Figure: 2.5dB nom.

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X-Band Communications SSPA

Launch Years: 2020 to present on multiple spacecraft.

Highlight: TT&C transmitter SSPA, successfully launched and currently in operation.

Approximate Dimensions: 4.5cm (W) x 5.1cm (L) x 2.2cm (H) / 1.8in (W) x 2.0in (L) x 0.9in (H)

RF Output Power P1dB: 2W min.

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S-Band LNA with Preselector Filter

Launch Years: 2020 to present on multiple spacecraft.

Highlight: TT&C receiver LNA with preselector filter, successfully launched and currently in operation.

Approximate Dimensions: 4.8cm (W) x 5.5cm (L) x 1.9cm (H) / 1.9in (W) x 2.2in (L) x 0.8in (H)

Noise Figure: 2dB nom.

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Team Experience

Member: Fernando Aguirre.  Lead RF Engineer and Founder.

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Space RF Hardware Deliverables at Radial Space: 

  • Various SmallSat RF modules on Satellites.  Including frequency converters, Radar LNAs, Communications SSPA and LNAs.

 

Successful Space Missions prior to Radial Space: 

  • Mars Cube One (MarCO)

  • NISAR Ka-Band Exciter (launch year: 2023)

  • Mars 2020

  • Mars Science Laboratory

  • ISARA Cubesat

  • INSPIRE Cubesat (launch TBD)

  • ISS RapidScat

  • GRAIL 

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Relevant Publications:

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  1. “Miniaturized and Reconfigurable RF Electronics Architecture for SmallSat Applications” IEEE Aerospace Conference, March 2020.  Recipient of Best Paper Award in pertinent track. Aguirre, F.

  2. “The Iris Deep-Space Transponder for the SLS EM-1 Secondary Payloads,” IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, 2019.  Kobayashi, M., Holmes, S., Yarlagadda, A., Aguirre, F., Chase, M., Angaska, K., Burgett, B., McNally, L., Dobreva, T., Satorius, E.

  3. “The ISARA Mission – Flight Demonstration of a High Gain Ka-Band Antenna for 100Mbps Telecom,” Proceedings of the 32nd Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, 2018.  Hodges, R., Lewis, D., Radway, M., Toorian, A., Aguirre, F., Hoppe, D., Shah, B., Gray, A.

  4. “High-Rate Ka-Band Modulator for the NISAR Mission,” Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2018.  Pugh, M., Kuperman, I., Kobayashi, M., Aguirre, F., Kilzer, M., Spurgers, C.

  5. “High Density Packaging Technologies for RF Electronics in Small Spacecraft,” Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2017.  Aguirre, F., Schatzel, D.

  6. “The Universal Space Transponder: A Next Generation Software Defined Radio,” Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2017.  Pugh, M., Kuperman, I., Aguirre, F., Mojaradi, H., Spurgers, C., Kobayashi, M., Satorius, E., Jedrey, T.,

  7. “X-Band Electronics for the INSPIRE Cubesat Deep Space Radio,” Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2015.  Aguirre, F.H.

  8. “Ka-Band Tone Generator for the ISARA Cubesat,” Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2015.  Aguirre, F., Custodero, B., Shah, B.

  9. “Iris Transponder – Communications and Navigation for Deep Space,” Proceedings of the 28th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, 2014.  Duncan, C.B., Smith, A.E., Aguirre, F.H.

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LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/fernando-aguirre-rfengineerspace

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