1. The hardware cost including all the RF and Baseband components in the transponder. Since we can use the existing ground station aperture antenna and satellite antenna, it helps to reduce our cost.
2. The duration of our communication system is 5 years, so we do need some budget to maintain the system.
3. Assume $50K/year salary for each research engineer, we need total $1250K for 5 people in our company during 5 years.
4. In order to test our satellite link, we need to buy or borrow some test equipment, including Network Analyzer, Power Meter, Noise Analyzer, Cable Kit, BERT Sets, etc.
5. The Thermal Control System and Power System of the satellite are not considered as cost limiting issues here. Besides, we leave 20% overhead for the total cost.

Timeline

Risk Assessment and Management

One of the most critical components of our satellite design is ensuring that there are mechanisms in place to help prevent possible sources of failure and mitigate the consequences of failure. Our satellite system will be part of a larger host satellite. Under no circumstance will any failure modes within our design adversely affect or damage the host system. Possible sources of risk during the flight lifetime can be a result of radiation damage, meteors/debris, part degradation, or unsafe operating states. In order to help manage the risks mentioned above and others not mentioned, the following steps are recommended:
1. make sure that all electronic components are radiation hardened to IEEE standards and ensure that parts are reliable enough to tolerate the effects of total ionizing dose (TID effects) and particle strikes for no less than 3 years
2. ensure that contact with our system to outside debris will not cause adverse effects to other systems (i.e. our parts will not explode if physically struck by a meteor)
3. power lines (VDD and ground) will be supplied to our system via sub-buses – our components will not have direct contact to primary power lines and our sub-buses may be disconnected from primary lines to either conserve energy if needed or to disconnect system in the case of system failure
4. watchdog timers will be on board that will be periodically pinged by host spacecraft – if no response is found, our system will be restarted; if no response is found after multiple restarts, our system will be disconnected from primary power lines
5. software will be rigorously tested to ensure that unsafe operating conditions will not occur.

Possibility of a meteor striking a satellite at GEO is extremely low but is nonetheless a source of risk that must be addressed