Acronyms

ACM Adaptive Coding and Modulation

ADAC Attitude Determination And Control

ADC Analog – Digital Converter

AGC Automatic Gain Control

AO-xx AMSAT Oscar (satellite number) xx

APIC Auxiliary Payload Integration Contractor

ASCENT Advanced Satellite Communications and Exploration of New
Technology ("skunk works")

Az Azimuth

BPF Band Pass Filter

BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying

C&DH Control and Data Handling

CAD Computer Aided Design

CAN Controller Area Network

CDR Critical Design Review

CIU Control Interface Unit

CMD Command

CONOPS Concept of Operations

COTS Commercial Off The Shelf

CSLI CubeSat Launch Initiative

CSS Coarse Sun Sensor

CW Continuous Wave

DCT Digital Communications Transceiver

DSP Digital Signal Processing

EAR Export Administration Regulation

El Elevation

ELaNa Educational Launch of Nanosatellites

EM Engineering Model

EOL End Of Life

EPS Electric Power Subsystem

FC Flight Computer (an OBC)

FDM Frequency Division Multiplex

FDX Full Duplex

FEA Finite Element Analysis; also Failure Effects Analysis

FEC Forward Error Correction

FEM Finite Element Model

FM Flight Model; also Frequency Modulation

FoV Field of View

FPGA Field Programmable Gate Array

FPS Functional Performance Specification

GBT GOLF Battery Tender

GEO Geosynchronous Earth Orbit

GEVS General Environmental Vibration Specification (NASA)

GNC Guidance, Navigation, & Control

GND Ground

GOLF Greater Orbit Larger Footprint

GPS Global Positioning System

HEO High Earth Orbit

I2C Inter-Integrated Circuit

ICR Improved Command Receiver (part of the LTM)

ID Identification

IF Intermediate Frequency

IHU Internal Housekeeping Unit (an OBC!)

IMU Inertial Measurement Unit

ISDE Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (Vanderbilt
University)

ITAR International Traffic in Arms Regulations

LDPC Low Density Parity Check (FEC code)

LEO Low Earth Orbit

LEPF Low Energy Proton FinFET

LIHU Legacy Internal Housekeeping Unit (an OBC)

LNA Low Noise Amplifier

L.O. Local Oscillator

LT Linear Transponder

LTM Linear Transponder Module

LV Launch Vehicle

MEO Medium Earth Orbit

MRR Mission Readiness Review

MT Magnetorquer

MTTF Mean Time To Fail

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

OAP Orbit Average Power

OBC On Board Computer

OPS Operations

PCB Printed Circuit Board

PCU Power Conditioning Unit

PDR Preliminary Design Review

PDU Power Distribution Unit

PMAD Power Management And Distribution

PPT Power Point Tracker

RAD Radiation

RBF Remove Before Flight

RF Radio Frequency

RFNOC RF Network On Chip (ETTUS)

RT/IHU Radiation Tolerant/Internal Housekeeping Unit

RW Reaction Wheel

RX/TX Receiver/Transmitter (part of the LTM)

S/N Signal to Noise (ratio)

SAA South Atlantic Anomaly

SAW Solar Array Wing

SDR Software Defined Radio

SEE Single Event Effects

SEU Single Event Upset

SoC System on Chip

SP Solar Panel

SPI Serial Peripheral Interface

SRAM Static Random Access Memory

SRS System Requirements Specification

SSB Single Side Band

SSPA Solid State Power Amplifier

ST Star Tracker

STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

TDM Time Division Multiplex

TLE Two Line Element

TLM Telemetry

TRL Technology Readiness Level (scale of 1 to 9)

TT&C Telemetry, Tracking and Command

UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter

UHF Ultra High Frequency

USB Universal Serial Bus

UTC Universal Time

uW MicroWave

VHF Very High Frequency

VR Voltage Regulator

VUC Vanderbilt University Controller

WB Wide Band

XCVR Transceiver

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