Geostationary Data Relay Satellites for Earth Observation: The GeReLEO Concept

From a GEO satellite’s perspective a LEO satellite is visible on more than half of its orbit. Albeit the free-space loss of an inter-satellite link is much higher than the one of a direct ground link, considerable data rates and download volumes per overflight can be achieved. In this paper we describe an integrated approach for a data relay satellite system developed in the context of the GeReLEO research project. The system has been developed and optimized especially for small LEO satellites with very limited transmit power.