| Group |
2010-11 |
Status |
completed |
| Title |
Satellite Mission Design and Simulation |
| Supervisor |
Dr. Scott Gleason |
| Description |
This project will involve designing and building both a small ground based satellite and a command and control ground station. The satellite is expected to be very small and simple but should nevertheless contain as many real satellite subsystems as possible. It
should operate as if it was in a low Earth orbit with only periodic communications with the ground station. Creative methods for simulating realistic satellite subsystems on the ground are greatly encourage. The minimum the satellite must contain is an on-board
computer or micro controller, a communications link to a ground station and an instrument. The communications link can be simplified but the data and commands transmitted back and forth from the satellite should obey the constraints that would be encountered on a real satellite.
The instrument for the satellite which can be controlled from the ground station or run autonomously and can be as simple as a temperature sensor or more complicated depending on the students knowledge and interest. Other possible enhancements could include the addition of simple solar panels, a sun sensor (for which an external "sun" could be simulated and possibly even a GPS receiver.
The ground station will run an orbit simulator (an open source version will be provided) and communicate with the satellite only when the satellite's simulated orbit indicates it is passing over the selected ground station location. At this point commands can be sent to the satellite and data from the instrument as well as health and safety
telemetry can be downloaded and displayed.
This project is intended to expose students to a cross disciplinary application of aerospace engineering with very unique requirements. For example, when the ground based simulation is running, the satellite must be assumed to be orbiting the Earth. The reset button can't be pressed when the software crashes, the battery power must be
carefully managed, the satellite must listen for the ground station (or determine itself when it is in range). These and other aspects of satellite design must be carefully considered.
The Canadian Space Agency has kindly agreed to send someone to provide comments and encouragement during the final project demonstrations. |
| Student Requirement |
C and/or C++ programming knowledge. Experience designing micro controllers
systems and interfaces.
|
| Tools |
A ground station programming environment (several open source versions are available).
Basic electronic components; microcontrollers, bread boards, other analog and digital hardware depending on the design.
|
| Number of Students |
4~6 |
| Students |
Ouben Jeong,
Evans Durandisse,
Ala'a Refaei,
Korhan Akcura,
Fayza Sayeed,
Peter Scheer
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