DIY Comms and Control for Amateur Space: Talking and Listening to Your Satellite

142 Pages·2015·4.88 MB·English

by  Sandy Antunes

DIY Comms and Control for
Amateur Space
Sandy Antunes
DIY Comms and Control for Amateur Space
by Sandy Antunes Copyright © 2015 Sandy Antunes. All rights reserved.
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Preface
The picosatellite field has exploded, going from less than 10 launched per year
(back in 2009-2011, when I did my Calliope build) to over 100 launches this
year alone. We have gone from requiring a large university or lab to back a
project, to a point where even a motivated high school can build one. We are in a
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) space age, and I’m proud (maybe even a bit smug) that
Calliope has been part of that. In fact, I’m building version 2 of my hardware,
using advances designed by others who were, in part, inspired by my Project
Calliope!
While waiting for launch, I’ve written these four short DIY satellite books for
Make:, each of which has sold several thousand copies. I get emails from DIY
builders of CubeSats and TubeSats and PocketQubes asking my advice. These
emails often start off with “I was inspired by your project and have a technical
question about,” followed by a technical question of such complexity that it’s
clear they are already pushing the picosatellite frontier way past what I did with
my little basement-build. There are CubeSats flying this year that include my
work as an inspiration.
I was hired by Capitol Technology University to teach college students about
satellites and systems engineering and physics. They hired me, to a large degree,
because attempting Calliope impressed them. I am full-time faculty, starting my
fifth year there, and just got promoted to Associate Professor. Because I haven’t
launched yet, and I’m helping college students work towards their own satellites,
I donated the bulk of my ground station hardware to the not-for-profit Capitol
lab I run. This donated hardware is jumpstarting students’ engagement in topics
like ham radio and payload commanding and stuff. My focus is on what I can do
for the next generation of space enthusiasts. In addition, I’ve become an
advocate for the so-called STEAM movement, that adds an A for Art into the
usual STEM curricula.
Life is not a race because the only finishing line is the future, and that is
unknown. So why not be the people that create that future? Read, think, build,
interact, then repeat. As long as you are moving forward, you are going
somewhere.
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control-amateur-space.
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Chapter 1. Overview
Talking to Machines
“A workman is only as good as their tools.” [anon]
“Only a poor workman blames his tools.” [anon]
“A bad worker quarrels with his tools.” [anon]
“Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world.”
[Archimedes]
This is a book on how to talk to satellites. Most communications books of this
type will welcome you to the exciting world of radio. And I agree. Nearly every
ham radio person or AMSAT member or communications enthusiast loves what
they do. They revel in the details, and they get great pleasure from pulling off
magnificent acts of technical competence to span this world—and others—using
simple electronics.
I only want to talk to machines. I just want it to work. I want my satellite
communications as a commodity, not an art.
This book, therefore, pays utmost respect to those who are ever advancing the
performance frontiers, but tackles it from the base utility view of a plebe. This
book will simultaneously provide you with a lay view of how you can talk to
satellites, and a peek into the rapidly changing world of satellite radio
communications.
Rapidly changing is almost an understatement. In the month before I wrote this
introduction, 64 CubeSats were launched or deployed. One new 3000-station
comm network was set up by a single amateur operation. So this book will, by
the time it’s published—one month after final edits—probably be ignorant of the
newest advances. For this reason, I talk very little on specific models of
hardware or protocols, and instead focus on system engineering principals
required to assess then develop your entire ground and communications network.
In this age of Making, you can find endless case studies of hardware. This book
is intended as the missing manual to provide understanding of the entire end-to-
end process necessary for accurately commanding and then receiving data from
your satellite. If you only walk away with two pieces of knowledge from this
book, let them be these: calculate your actual bandwidth and don’t overpromise
on your mission (which often will deal in kilobytes of data, not megabytes or
gigabytes) until you run your comms budgets, and understand that satellite radio
is just like “ground radio plus Doppler shift” (Doppler shift is covered in
Chapter 3).
Some people view communications as a means to an end; I admit I do.
Hopefully this book will convey to you not just the current means, but the trends
and directions that are creating new ways of playing with our classical elements
of signal, gear, and smarts to let anyone—even me—better talk to machines. In
one month in 2013, there were 65 CubeSats launched. What will the future bring
—crowding and less spectrum, or shared networks and easier access? This book
will hopefully ground you in the core systems engineering principles needed to
ensure your satellite has reliable, consistent, accessible communication.
Operations is always a compromise between improvement and risk, between
wants and costs. A good operations mentality is to understand that risk is not
binary, and that “pause and assess” is more important than quick decisions. Early
in your design stage, you can go for wacky ideas and embrace risk. Once you are
maintaining your system, however, incremental improvement and risk avoidance
are more important. In any project, multiple types and viewpoints are not just
good but essential for strong mission operations. Always try to fall back to:
1. Why are we doing this?
2. How does this serve the mission?
3. Is this the standard approach?
4. Is this the best approach?
Parts of a Comm System
There are several parts to a comms system. To get data down from the satellite,