Managing a Satellite, collecting, processing and distributing the mission and housekeeping data can be a daunting task for any Satellite operator. Satellite Services BV is here to help you succeed.
The advantages of having direct access to data are very important to Satellite operators. But despite this the high cost of acquiring and operating a remote ground station can be cost prohibitive. To address this situation, Satellite Services BV has introduced the concept of low cost access.
For a basic fee, organisations can have access to a complete, end-to-end ground station facility located in Australia which includes S or X-band Antenna data demodulation/modulation up to 320Mbps, satellite tracking, acquisition, tasking, planning and scheduling, Satellite commanding, telemetry data processing, data distribution and data archival. The facility is designed to provide support for both large and small Satellite missions.
DESCRIPTION OF GROUND STATION FACILITITIES
The Ground Station facilities are separated into three major elements:
- Antenna Systems
- Master Ground Station Computer (MGSC)
- Operations Control Center (OCC)
1. Antenna Systems
The Antenna system provides access at both X and S band and with both up and down link capability. The antennas are fully steerable and contain all the elements for up/down frequency conversion and data modulation/ demodulation up to 320Mbps.
S-Band Tracking Antenna Specification
- Dual polarisation feed horn
- 3 meter Andrews dish
- Antenna Gain 34.5dB
- Azimuth-Elevation mount
- Polarisation controllable
- Diplex Low Noise Amplifier (LNA)
- Uplink power 5 Watts
X-Band Tracking Antenna Specification
- Receive System
- Antenna type 6.8m Andrews with a primary feed focus.
- Hydraulic driven X/Y mounted pedestal.
- Frequency range 8.0 to 8.4 GHz
- Polarization RHC
- System G/T ~ 30 dB/K @ 6 degrees
- Beam-width approx. 0.4 degrees
- X-band LNA data Miteq (0.7 dB Noise Figure)
Antenna Footprint
An example footprint for a LEO satellite at approx. 900km is given in the figure below.
2. Master Ground Station Computer (MGSC)
The MGSC is used to control all the front-end elements and is the main interface for controlling and monitoring the Ground Station operations. The main functions of the MGSC are:
Main MGSC Functions:
- Ingress and Egress times for all satellites of interest
- Low level antenna tracking control and monitoring
- RF equipment control and monitoring
- Ground Station weather information
- Ground Station equipment connection status Visible/audible alarm indicators
3. Operations Control Center (OCC)
The OCC provides individual users with access to control and monitor their satellite. The OCC provides a windows style interface that is user friendly and is very efficient for low earth orbit satellites that operate during a relatively short pass.
The OCC receives the real-time telemetry and archives this to disk before processing. Functions within the OCC decode the telemetry and provide the user with a displayed of typical satellite parameters such as battery voltages, temperatures and attitude control angles.
The OCC also provides the user with facilities to build sequences of telecommand that can be saved and then sent to the satellite during a pass. The CCSDS Command Operation Procedure (COP-1) uplink protocol is used to guarantee delivery.
Facilities also exist to upload and down load large files to the satellite for payload experiments and for platform operations.
Payload Data Analysis Tool
A custom configurable data analysis & display tool is also available that provides data monitoring and processing services for complex systems.
This package currently includes the following functions:
- Monitoring and analysis of the spacecraft system providing an instant display of all monitored voltage, current, power, temperature and status, monitoring for the platform and payloads during passes to enable fast analysis of performance
- Error warnings and advice for DHS (Data Handling System) Operational and debug analysis
- Automatic stack creation for spacecraft ACS time and TLE updates, enabling updates during passes
- Automatic stack creation for next dataset requests to reduce operator workloads.
- Instant display of spacecraft attitude information
The Ground station facilities are currently being used commercially to receive SPOT satellite information on a daily basis, and is also regularly used to track TERRA and AQUA satellites.