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A senior design team from Texas A&M tasked with a project out of this world had to develop a wireless solution for small sensor systems in space.

We looked at all our options, and to get the distance we needed, we ended up going with the Texas Instruments cc1120 and cc1190 long range solution.

The project builds upon a compact, space-rated modular computer system developed by NASA. The group was tasked with building the wireless layer to allow connectivity with the earth. The sub-1 ghz cc1120 works as the transceiver for the wireless layer, and the cc1190 worked as a range extender to transmit from above the atmosphere down to the ground.

We chose these two chips because we needed a solution that could go a long distance with a strong signal, and TI ended up passing all of the tests.

The team was able to see the potential of the cc1120 and cc1190 combo through a series of simulations from 5 kilometers all the way to 2,100 kilometers, with little to no packet loss.

It was clear after those simulations that we had chose the right solution.

Beyond just specifications, the team utilized TI's support network for help on the project.

One aspect where TI out-shined everyone else was the support. I could post a question on E2E, whether it be hardware or software related, and I would get an answer directly from TI's engineers. We just couldn't find that type of support from any other supplier.

As the project completed, the team had one final test-- to send a balloon into the atmosphere and receive continuous data the entire way.

It worked.

It worked.

We ended up going 107,000 feet and got packets the entire time.

The project ended up being a complete success and even won TI's design competition.

To learn more about Texas Instruments and long range solutions, visit ti.com/sub1ghz.