Estimate how much data a spacecraft can downlink each day from its orbital period, average contact duration, link rate, and usable-link efficiency. It turns pass geometry assumptions into an operations-level data budget.
Megabits are converted to gigabytes using 8,000 megabits per decimal gigabyte.
Daily delivered data is an average planning value. It combines orbital cadence with assumed station access and protocol availability, not detailed antenna visibility.
Weather, station conflicts, coding overhead, and actual pass geometry can reduce delivered volume.
A 95-minute orbit, 8-minute contact, 12 Mbps link, and 75% efficiency yield about 8.19 GB per day and 0.54 GB effectively delivered per pass.
Enter distance from the body's center. Add the body's mean radius to altitude before using the calculator.
Yes. It uses a two-body circular-orbit approximation unless the page explicitly asks for a mission allowance.
Yes. Replace the gravitational parameter and radius inputs with values for the selected body.
High-fidelity tools may include oblateness, atmospheric drag, third-body gravity, eccentricity, and numerical propagation.
No. They are preliminary engineering estimates and should be checked with validated mission-analysis software.
| Input | Unit |
|---|---|
| Orbital period | minutes/orbit |
| Contact duration | minutes/orbit |
| Link rate | megabits/second |
| Efficiency | percent of raw capacity |