Low Cost High Data Rate Portable Ground Station

Completed TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 5)

Description

The Low Cost High Data Rate Portable Ground Station project will develop the basis of a low cost, portable, remotely configurable ground station to receive high rate data from high-altitude scientific balloon missions, with extensibility to smallsat and cubesat platforms, by leveraging existing hardware and software.

The Low Cost High Data Rate Portable Ground Station will be based on an existing X/Y gimbal antenna pedestal that is used to track the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) on-board high altitude Long and Ultra Long Duration Balloon (LDB and ULDB) missions. The pedestal is capable of full hemispherical coverage and is coupled with an attitude determining GPS system and a microcontroller to actively point the attached 18" circularly polarized array antenna to an available TDRS. To realize a low cost high data rate ground station, the existing X/Y gimbal and antenna pedestal will be modified to support array antennas up to a few meters in diameter to achieve higher gain while the control software will be modified to actively and accurately track a high altitude balloon. Link margins will be developed to determine the optimal link architecture between the balloon and the ground station and a ground antenna will be selected for further charaterization testing. In addition, an architecture will be developed for the supporting ground station equipment that will be required to fully implement the concept of a portable ground station.

Benefits

N/A

Details

Technology area	Communications, Navigation, and Orbital Debris Tracking and Characterization Systems > Radio Frequency > Flight and Ground Systems
Program	Center Independent Research & Development: GSFC IRAD (GSFC IRAD)
Lead organization	Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA
Start date	2015-10-01
End date	2016-09-01

Project contacts

Listed on TechPort itself — the most direct way to ask about this specific project.

Daniel A Mullinix — daniel.a.mullinix@nasa.gov
Wesley A Powell — wesley.a.powell@nasa.gov
Brian S Abresch — brian.s.abresch@nasa.gov
Abel C Duer — abel.c.duer@nasa.gov
Amy L Davis — amy.l.davis@nasa.gov
Kenneth E Hall — kenneth.e.hall@nasa.gov
Marta B Shelton — marta.b.shelton@nasa.gov
Negeen Saghafi — negeen.saghafi@nasa.gov
Samuel M Thompson — samuel.m.thompson@nasa.gov

How to get involved

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 2) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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