Building End-to-End Space Communications with Cascade Space’s Jacob Portukalian

Jacob Portukalian is the co-founder and CEO of Cascade Space, a company developing comprehensive communication solutions for spacecraft.

What does Cascade Space do?

Cascade Space is building an end-to-end communication solution for spacecraft. Our long-term vision includes a network of ground stations and software for communications system design and testing. Unlike existing ground station providers who give you a manual and leave you to figure out the technical details, we provide a full platform. 

Most providers don’t tell you everything you need to know about radios, link budgets, and implementation details that can make or break your mission. As an experienced radio frequency (RF) engineer, I’ve seen people make critical mistakes because they didn’t have access to the right expertise. We’re creating a system that lets teams do things the right way without having to staff up a full communications team.

In the short term, we’re focused on launching our software product for dynamic link modeling. This is something both my co-founder Arlen and I have dealt with extensively in our careers. We’re building tools specifically for early-stage space companies, starting with our open-source library called SpaceLink that serves as the core library behind our software-as-a-service (SaaS) product.

How did you get into space communications?

I got my first ham radio license when I was 13. I had an unusual educational background and when I went to college, I didn’t even know what engineering was. I picked electrical engineering because I wanted to understand how my radios worked. I studied electrical engineering with a specialty in microwave circuits at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Shortly after graduating, I joined SpaceX where I was hired as a power amplifier designer, though I’d only designed one power amplifier in my life at that point. I kept taking on more responsibility and before I knew it, I was the architect for the Crew Dragon communications system.

What were the unique challenges of designing Crew Dragon’s communications system?

Crew Dragon presented interesting constraints because Elon Musk was very anti-deployables. Deployables and pyrotechnics account for the majority of space mission failures, so we had to design all antennas to be conformal. Unlike Cargo Dragon, where losing contact for 20-30 minutes wasn’t critical, Crew Dragon required continuous communications. While not safety-critical for keeping crew alive, it was still vital.

We needed to simultaneously close links to TDRS (NASA’s geosynchronous constellation about 22,400 miles from Earth), ground stations, and the ISS. This created a huge dynamic range problem since you’re trying to receive a very weak signal from TDRS while potentially getting a very loud signal from the ISS just a kilometer away. Plus, the vehicle is constantly rotating and slewing, so we developed a system to switch between different antennas dynamically. Every component had to be custom designed for this architecture.

How do lunar and deep space communications differ from Earth orbit missions?

Once you get past the GPS constellation, positioning becomes a major challenge. While some have demonstrated GPS reception as far as the moon, most satellites going beyond medium Earth orbit don’t even include GPS receivers. This makes ranging a critical feature – ground stations need to both transmit and receive simultaneously for closed-loop ranging.

The physics are unforgiving. You need very large apertures, whether it’s a phased array or a single dish. Building these massive structures is incredibly challenging. For Ka-band frequencies, you need millimeter-level surface smoothness on structures that can be 105 feet across. NASA’s large dishes cost around $100 million and take years to build. Even “smaller” 66-foot dishes have five-plus year timelines from down payment to operation.

The communications infrastructure is already a bottleneck for lunar and deep space missions. Within five years, demand will thoroughly outstrip supply. If we’re serious about sending people to the moon, establishing lunar permanence, and mining asteroids, we need solutions now.

What is dynamic link modeling and why is it important?

Antenna patterns don’t have constant gain since it varies based on orientation. You might have 5 dB gain at boresight but negative 10 dB at the edges. You need to communicate regardless of spacecraft orientation, but there will be nulls where communication isn’t possible. You might also want to throttle data rates to maximize downlink for a given attitude.

Currently, guidance and navigation teams run Monte Carlo simulations for various scenarios, but RF typically isn’t included in these simulations. RF teams then separately process trajectories to analyze link performance, creating a manual back-and-forth between teams.

We’re creating a system where you can plug your link budget directly into guidance, navigation and control (GNC) simulations, eliminating this manual process. Our open-source library already lets you load antenna patterns, perform interpolation, and connect to link budgets. We’re getting this reviewed by antenna experts to ensure accuracy. Soon, our SaaS product will let you do this with minimal effort and no coding required.

What are the main challenges facing Cascade Space?

From a technology standpoint, the main challenge is building large apertures at scale. That fundamental technical challenge hasn’t been solved yet. On the software side, RF design software is already a billion-dollar market, not counting what companies spend on internal tooling. Elite space companies like SpaceX have likely spent millions building their own tools. Our challenge is creating something people trust more than their own software.

The typical Silicon Valley “ship fast” approach doesn’t work for software that must be correct. There’s no margin for error. We need to build something not only high quality but transparent enough that users can verify it works correctly. They need to trust it not because we say so, but because we can show them the analysis and let them verify the results themselves.

Who are your target customers?

Any company going to space is a potential customer, from low Earth orbit to lunar missions. Companies going beyond geostationary orbit will benefit most because dynamic analysis becomes critical for deep space. In low Earth orbit (LEO), you often have enough excess power to overpower the link. But in deep space, you don’t have that luxury. Every tenth of a decibel matters, and one spreadsheet error could doom your mission.

Having reliable, trustworthy software to model different scenarios becomes essential. We’re building tools that let small RF teams handle the workload effectively, unlocking capabilities for companies that can’t afford large engineering departments.

How do you define deep tech?

Deep tech is anything that requires serious scientific or engineering breakthroughs. 

SPONSORED

HAUS specializes in public relations and creative services for deep tech startups.

Learn more