Nanosatellites

A type of artificial satellite having a weight of 1 to 10 kilograms, including on-board fuel. For Nanosatellites, autonomous operation using a single on-board computer is feasible, making use of technology developed for small mobile computers. To minimise mass, active attitude and orbit control are often ignored, and omni-directional antennas are employed. The main limits are set by the downlink and power generation systems. The downlink data rate is limited by the orbit average power generation, and has to be operated at low data rates, or in burst mode.