Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations Concept, Progress and Demonstration AMSAT-UK Colloquium, 26 th July 2009 GENSO System Engineering Team Bastian Preindl, Vienna Bryan Klofas KF6ZEO Neil Melville PA9N Led by: Phil Beavis, VEGA
The Current Situation A Typical Student Space Segment Satellite in Low-Earth Orbit, often Sun Synchronous, Low-power transmitters, Standard communications protocols (such as AX25), Use of the Amateur Radio bands: VHF, UHF and S-Band. A Typical Student Ground Segment A single, local, groundstation, usually at the host university, Capable of communication on one or two of the Amateur Radio frequency bands, A single rotator and a single elevator to track the spacecraft, A single PC controlling the groundstation hardware and the mission data. Typical Limitations From ~15 orbits there are around six passes a day, averaging perhaps five minutes each, Satellite is in communications range less than 3% of the mission time, For 97% of the time the groundstation is idle, The groundstation is not configured to communicate with other educational spacecraft, The spacecraft is only configured to communicate with the specific groundstation.
Project Motivation Mission Statement: To facilitate a significant increase in data return and control of educational spacecraft by developing an online network of collaborative ground stations. Advantages of sharing resources: Provides near-global coverage for all participating missions, Allows for a dramatic increase in mission return, Many critical operations would benefit from having long and uninterrupted communication sessions, Enables access to a large amount of live spacecraft data at low cost, Example low-earth orbit satellite coverage from just 30 stations Encourages formation of a coherent space education community.
Conceptual Overview GENSO will consist of three main types of entity: Ground Station Servers, GSS Software - Running on every GENSO ground station - Controls the existing local hardware setup - Communicates with many GENSO spacecraft - Used by radio amateurs/students Mission Control Clients, MCC Software - Running at each GENSO mission control centre - Interfaces to existing local control software - Communicates with the local spacecraft via GSSs - Used by spacecraft controllers Authentication Servers, ASL Hardware & Software - Monitor and control the network status - Provide authentication and network security - A set of mirrored servers, one on each continent - Controlled by GENSO Administration
GENSO Description Software Application: Ground Station Server (GSS) The GSS application will run at each of the ground stations in the network. It will log on to the Authentication Server, control the local hardware to communicate with participating spacecraft, and provide a User Interface for the station operator. Software Application: Mission Control Client (MCC) The MCC application will run at each mission control centre in the network. It will log onto the Authentication Server, control the local spacecraft using remote stations, and provide a User Interface for the mission controllers. Network Control: Authentication Servers (AUS) The Authentication Servers will control the dynamic status of the network, and distribute information to all of the online nodes accordingly. Reference GENSO Ground Station Although GENSO will be highly flexible, the AMSAT-UK team have defined an optimum, low-cost ground station which will maximise return from GENSO. One such station is already instantiated in ISU, and another in ESOC. ESTEC is pending. Open Source GNU Public Licence (TBC)
Ground Station Server - User can be any radio amateur station - Most educational stations are ham stations - User simply configures the GSS with the details of their station hardware. Then, all processes are automatic (if desired). - The Controller module reports to the AUS and receives lists of GENSO spacecraft details - The Scheduler automatically plans and executes downlink passes for GENSO spacecraft, and also allows MCCs to book bidirectional sessions - All mission data is stored locally for the operator, and also sent automatically to the spacecraft controllers - The Hardware Abstraction Layer ensures that the GSS can work with almost any hardware - Specific drivers are required for each piece of local hardware, a large library of which will be packaged with the GSS. (Users can write more and contribute!)
Mission Control Client - Users can be any radio amateur spacecraft controllers, which includes most educational missions - User simply configures the MCC with the details of their spacecraft and their data requirements - Remote GENSO stations will automatically track the spacecraft and downlink any data it is transmitting - The MCC will automatically retrieve all remotely downloaded data, and store it locally - The user may request to book uplink sessions using remote ground stations, from a list of options in the GUI. The MCC will then automatically negotiate with the appropriate GSS to make the booking - Booked passes will be bidirectional and in real-time - Mission data will be stored in the MCC database for retrieval, but can also be streamed to any proprietary satellite application via the Wall Plug (virtual port). - A proprietary satellite application may also adjust the spacecraft configuration and request bookings via the MCC API
Progress so far (General & GSS) - Project infrastructure now on firm contractual basis - New principle System Engineer: Phil Beavis, VEGA -System Specification very mature - AUS online and stable (twice) - Test stations established: ISU, CalPoly, AAU, ESOC, G3VZV, G4DPZ, Tornio (lightning strike)... -Test drivers implemented: ICOM-910H, GS-232, GS-5500, Kantronics 9612, HamLib (partial), Mercury (partial)... -GSS internals implemented, including: - Network layer (secure) - AUS communications - Hardware Abstraction Layer - Driver integration - SPG4 Prediction - Pass Execution - Baseband/packet data storage - Pass Report generation and transfer - Live-Streaming - GUI version 2
Progress so far (MCC) - Network architecture proven and working (live) - Several spacecraft used for testing purposes: AO51, QUAKESAT, Xi-IV, Xi-V, SEEDS, CUTE1, GO32, AAUSat-II - MCC internals implemented, including: - Network layer (secure) - AUS communications - Pass Report retrieval - Live-Streaming - Baseband/packet data storage - GUI version 2
GUI Version 3 (Poznan) - Largely designed (Java beans) - Extremely flexible - Currently under implementation and integration
Schedule - Currently testing initial implementation and integrating GUI version 3 - A limited release planned for September 2009 - Controlled distribution (~20 stations) - Non-user friendly, many iterations for bug fixes - Realistic test environment (actual stations, actual hardware, actual spacecraft) - Development, implementation and testing of core feature set - A second release planned for April 2010 - Open distribution (?) - GUI version 3 integrated - Core end-user experience largely in place - Development of nice-to-have features - Beyond April 2010: - ESA Call For Proposals for the European Operational Node - Infrastructure - Network administration - User Support - Extended development (open source, nice-to-haves, advanced concepts) How should AMSAT-UK be involved in EON? Part of a potential consortium?
Long-term Development - Centralised scheduling algorithm (scalability?) - Software defined radio/modems - Multiple downlink stream error-correction - Emergency override: Help! Clear my ground-track! - Orbit determination using analysis of packet database (PA1IVO) - Inter-spacecraft communications, constellations - New bands, frequencies, hardware - Other applications for this network solution (Eg: VLBI?) - Applications for industries and space agencies - Real-time, whole orbit data via global coverage Dreaming up ideas CP-3, Engineering Model Note: These can all be applied later through plugins and drivers Open Source!
Summary: Benefits for Radio Amateurs - Greater utilisation of your ground station: more data from spacecraft - Fits around your normal operation non-intrusively - Tangible contribution to real academic space projects - Statistics will be maintained for ranking effectiveness of all GENSO stations - Involvement in an exciting, growing open-source project - Encourage a new generation of radio amateurs - Forging bridges between the amateur radio community, and the growing space education and CubeSat communities - It s great, powerful, FREE software!
Project Participants Currently Operational Compatible Spacecraft: AO16, AMSAT AO51, AMSAT CAN-X, Canada CUTE-1, Tokyo Institute of Technology GO32, AMSAT Hitsat, Hokkaido Institute of Technology International Space Station LO19, AMSAT QUAKE-SAT, Xi-IV, University of Tokyo Xi-V, University of Tokyo Please Note: This is not an exhaustive list Implementation Teams & Development Stations: AMSAT-UK, UK Aalborg University, Denmark CalPoly, USA ESA - ESTEC, Netherlands University Narvik, Norway Luleå University, Sweden SSETI Association, France TU Delft, Netherlands TU Vienna, Austria University of Tokyo, Japan International Space University, France University of Surrey, UK G3VZV, UK G4DPZ, UK Interested for when the network is operational: EPFL, Switzerland Hokkaido Institute of Technology, Japan Institute of Space Technology, Pakistan Kagawa University, Japan Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan Kyushu University, Japan Nihon University, Japan SOHLA (industrial consortium), Japan Soka University, Japan Stanford University, USA Sugadaira Space Radio Observatory, Japan SvalSat, Svalbard TU München, Germany Tohoku University, Japan Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Tokyo Metropolitan College, Japan University of Aachen, Germany University of Bologna University of Chile, Chile University of Manitoba, Canada University of Mauritius, Mauritius University of Toronto, Canada University of Patras, Greece University of Porto, Portugal University of South Australia, Australia University of Stuttgart, Germany University of Tokyo, Japan University of Warwick, UK University of Weingarten, Germany Yamaguchi University, Japan
Contact Us Given the complex nature of this project, the development of the GENSO systems will take some time. Please bear with us, and we look forward to welcoming you into the network once it is ready. More information can be found on the project website www.genso.org Project Manager Helen Page, ESA Education Office, genso@esa.int GENSO Creating Clear Horizons