[amsat-bb] Re: 150 cubesats to provide global WIFI multicasting

[Howie DeFelice]

Just in case anyone was curious about the practicality of actually transmitting WiFi from a cubesat, I did a quick link budget. Based on typical 802.11 specs, the MDS of a receiver is about -90 dBm. The path loss at 2.4GHz between a ground station and a satellite overhead in a 600Km orbit is a little over 155 dB. Assuming a zero gain antenna on the typical WiFi client radio, the required EIRP from the cubesat is in the neighborhood of 4KW.  I don't think we are quite there yet with current solar cell technology.... not to mention the difficulty keeping the PA cool :)

- Howie AB2S