An essential part of a satellite project is the ground station. Pdf nanosatellite ground station using software defined. So far, we only got access to polarization, but during summer and autoumn, we will mount equipment to gain access to the other polarization alternatives also. An rtlsdr and pi 3 based ground station for simulated. Amsat pacsat ground station software this is an experimental decoder for the pacsat protocol, designed for falconsat3. Full ground station kit for vhfuhf isis innovative solutions in. A second computer runs software that tracks the satellite, display a real time map and directs the antennas to point at the spacecraft when it is within range of the ground station. Global educational network for satellite operations. Amazon creates distributed satellite ground stations. Satellites communicate a few times daily with ground stations on earth.
But you can receive transmissions from many satellites using very inexpensive equipment. The frequency bands covered are sband, uhf, and vhf. The masat1 ground station client software was prepared to process the transmission received from the satellite masat1. There are installation instructions in the pacsat ground station manual. Leffke kj4qlp has written a masters thesis which explores the concept of deploying a network of distributed ground station receiver nodes for the purposes of increasing access time to the spacecraft, and thereby increasing the.
This software uses the orbital pattern of a satellite and the time of day, then calculates the position of. With its small satellite sband downlink ground station isis offers a turnkey solution that is specifically designed for small satellites in low earth orbit using sband radio frequencies. The software is designed for showing satellite positions on screen, taking the azimuth and elevation positions and controlling the motors on the dish. Development of a ground station for nsight1 mission. Distributed ground station network for cubesat communications zachary j. As well as verify all optimal passes for your satellite based on its orbit and our antenna availability. Ground station operation training from ground station installation to custom software development and operation strategies, we house experts in cubesat communication in vhf, uhf, and sband. The growing acceptance of the cubesat, a very small satellite, as a means of accomplishing focused research objectives of national interest makes this project.
The ground station for nanosatellite communications is a prototype with two steerable yagi antennae in the uhf and vhf bands. The cubesat ground station at the university of arizona. The server software is running on a debian linux platform. Building a simple and inexpensive cubesat satellite ground. Electric ground station equipment to further increase the reliability of our cubesat platform and subsystems we undergo development of ground station and testing equipment.
The isis small satellite ground station is a low cost, turnkey solution that is designed. A third computer runs gnuradio and is connected to a ettus n200 universal software radio peripheral usrp. I havent attempted satellite communications for roughly 15 years, but presumably the merope ground station setup would still be a viable option for cubesat tracking. Transmitting, receiving and displaying cubesat data through a webbased graphical user interface conference paper. Oresat ground station handheld satellite ground station for receiving wifi from space. Development of a satellite tracking ground station for the.
Design principles for ground stations support for curie and future missions uhf and sband communications room for expansion. Ground data systems and mission operations state of. This ground station research deals with the basic development of distributed ground stations and begins to deal with the many satellites, few ground stations optimization problem. Traditionally, these cubesats rely on amateur radio communications technology that are proven to work from space. You can also listen for phoenixs packets using an sdr and the following software packages. The antenna steering system is able to track the position of the satellite in the sky.
Our cubesat program allows students to design, test, and build satellites. A high speed software defined radio ground station for cubesat space research and operational missions gunther, jake swenson, charles. We are proud to have had an influence on their satnogs project, which is an open source ground station and network, optimized for modularity, and built using affordable tools and resources. A functional satellite model for the classroom alan johnston, ku2y vp education relations, amsat. This is a short term less than oneyear effort to develop a software defined radio ground station sdrgs for use by future geospace research and operational cubesat missions employing high data rate downlinks i. They are a great way for schools and other organizations to get into a space based technology project. This paper discusses the hardware, software, and development issues associated with this ground station.
An inexpensive rtlsdr software defined radio usb dongle and an omnidirectional antenna is a. Ground stations isis innovative solutions in space. Traditionally, one antenna listens for one satellite, so its not in use most of the time. Thermal, telecommunication and power systems for a cubesat. They can rapidly model electrical components and systems.
With a wide range of lowcost components for cubesats and ground stations available offthe shelf, space is becoming more accessible to new players all over the world, inspiring new applications and new approaches to mission operations. A ground station plan was established, including a cost budget for hardware and identification of an existing network which could support the mission objectives. This worksheets provides documentation for the software that is written for the groundstation that supports the aaucubesat satellite. Here you can find the telemetry decoder software for the masat1 cubesat. Rather than creating a globespanning network of ground stations, we think it makes more sense to build a constellation of cubesat routers, which can keep satellites connected to ground stations. Currently we are working on two cubesat missions and a ground station which are detailed below. Every ground station needs hardware and software components to operate and support spacecraft missions. We provide consulting and training to meet your needs in ground station operation and satellite communication. The global educational network for satellite operations genso is forming by a worldwide network of ground stations and spacecraft which can interact via a software standard. Clyde space, a company wellknown for manufacturing cubesats, commissioned its first ground station with an antenna installed on the roof of the companys headquarters in glasgow, scotland. Development of the university of delaware cubesat ground. The main camera captures images of the earth at 3 to 5 meter resolution. With this information, a telecommunications link budget was created and expected ground tracks calculated using systems tool kit stk software.
Ground station rtlsdr and free software space simulation 250 w halogen lamp for sun battery turntable to simulate spin. Our ground station configurator allows you to input multiple ground station configurations for frequency, modulation, polarization and protocols. The software defined implementation using the usrp allowed the team to apply adaptive, narrowband notching to reduce the effect of this interference. The sdrgs will be based on a prototype version that the proposing team has already developed on the nsf dynamic ionosphere cubesat experiment. We supplied the kompsat6 mission with its electrical ground station equipment and power supply ground station. Use an rtlsdr to receive telemetry from the cubesat simulator. Each dove continuously photographs the earths surface as it. This program, consisting of undergraduate and graduate students allows for members to learn through experience and develop their passions for aerospace. Recently the team have uploaded instructions on creating a raspberry pi and rtlsdr based ground station. All cubesat companies offering missions, platforms, components, software and services for or with nanosatellites. Cubesat ground station network with a wide range of lowcost components for cubesats and ground stations available offthe shelf, space is becoming more accessible to new players all over the world, inspiring new applications and new approaches to mission operations. Build your own satellite ground station alasdair allan in the past he has mesh networked the moscone center, caused a u. In addition, you will need a terminal node controller or tnc, which interprets the ax.
With its first ground station, clyde space moves towards. With its ground station, isis offers a turnkey solution that is specifically designed for small satellites in low earth orbit using vhf and uhf radio frequencies. There are a number of conceptual systems for the telemetry, tracking, and commanding of hundreds or thousands of small spacecraft. The raspberry pi ground station can do the following. The control centre is located in the cesar office so. The receiver is based on software radio and, with the appropriate configuration, can decode any signal within the band. Dynamic ionosphere cubesat experiment highspeed satellite ground station. This complete kit includes all hardware and software to get upandrunning quickly. Power systems engineers use matlab and simulink for tasks like running simulations for mission power profile analysis, predicting the system impacts of battery aging, and performing detailed design of electrical components such as dcdc converters. We have one antenna mast with tracking capabilities with uhf and vhf yagi antennae.
The mobile cubesat command and control mc3 ground station network is a department of defense dodled effort to build commonuse infrastructure supporting communications and mission operations of small satellites for a wide range of us government organizations, contractors, universities, and foreign partners. It is the server which collects information from the other processes and decides what should be done and when. Senate hearing, and contributed to the detection of what wasat the timethe most distant object yet discovered. A high speed software defined radio ground station. In addition to sending down images, we gather a variety of health data and occasionally send them new instructions or software updates. Emulation tools also play an important role for these types of missions and systems. Building a simple and inexpensive cubesat satellite ground station part 2 by bob and jann koepke in part 1, bob and jann wrote about the usb sdr software defined radio, the lna low noise amplifier, and various sateliite antennas. Most of cubesats ground stations are created using expensive hardware material. In addition to viewing the directory you can download and parse the telemetry.
Pdf nanosatellite ground station using software defined radios. The ground station will handle, on its own, the antenna pointing and radio doppler configurations. The isis small satellite ground station is a low cost, turnkey solution that is designed to communicate with satellites in low earth orbit leo that operate in either amateur frequency bands or commercial bands. Cubesat simulator ground station any 70cm ham radio that receives fm can be used to receive the afsk telemetry from the cubesat simulator. Small educational satellites called cubesats have been launched by dozens of universities and countries.
The transceiver makes use of a software defined radio sdr, providing. In addition to operating satellites, the neptune software also can also manage the ground station antenna array. By bob and jann koepke when we think of ground stations for satellites, large antenna arrays and dishes immediately come to mind, along with a lot of expensive electronics. Le ke abstract in the last decade the world has seen a steadily increasing number of cube satellites deployed to low earth orbit. Ground station alanbjohnstoncubesatsim wiki github. Building a simple and inexpensive satellite ground station.
The antenna technology is probably the same, so ensure you pair an excellent radio kenwoods were great around 2000 with whichever tracking software you employ. Essentially, satnogs provides a scalable and modular platform to communicate with satellites, accessible to anyone. A high speed software defined radio ground station for. The ground station can autonomously track selected satellites by using a steerable antenna system. The genso aims to increase the return from educational space missions and changed the way that these missions are managed, dramatically increasing the level of access to orbital educational. Ground station server the ground station server software is the central piece of software in the ground station software architecture.