The Mobile CubeSat Command and Control (MC3) Ground Station Network

NASA Smallsat Virtual Institute Webina

The Mobile CubeSat Command and Control (MC3) Ground Station Network: An Overview and Look Ahead

The Mobile CubeSat Command and Control (MC3) ground station network is a Department of Defense (DoD)-led effort to build common-use infrastructure supporting communications and mission operations of small satellites for a wide range of US government organizations, contractors, universities, and foreign partners. The network consists of low-cost ground station terminals fielded at participating institutions, providing operators bent-pipe access to their satellites from any location with an internet connection. MC3 currently consists of eight active stations, and three international collaborators. One of the most important aspects of the ground station network has been the diverse community of small satellite users that have come together to share capabilities of mutual interest. This paper describes the MC3 network and presents an overview of cost-effective future capabilities that will benefit researchers flying experiments on small satellites. Key capabilities include the Satellite Agile Transmit and Receive Network (SATRN) software, flexible software-defined radio architectures, fast-track radio licensing, expanded frequency support, and integration into secure cloud-based infrastructure. The paper also highlights some of the research undertaken at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) which utilizes the MC3 network and the satellites it operates as a testbed for advanced concepts. Research topics include optimization of constellation operations, predictive modeling of pass quality, and representative communications experiments flown on high altitude balloons and high power rockets

Government-owned CubeSat Next Generation Bus Reference Architecture

The number of CubeSats and small satellites placed in orbit has been growing exponentially since 1999 as demonstrated by more than 40 CubeSats being launched in the last quarter of 2013 from the USA alone. While CubeSats were initially used for academic purpose and generally tailored towards technology demonstration, it has become more evident that small satellites can play a role in some operational contexts such as earth observation, space weather, or situational awareness, to name just a few. In the past, each institution involved in Small Satellites has often designed their own proprietary system with regards to communication, software, avionics, and command and control, with incremental improvements based on previous successes. While this may make sense in an academic environment, where it provides students with a wide range of learning opportunities, it distracts teams exploring scientific or operational missions from focusing primarily on the payload technology. Building upon previous work funded by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and known as the Colony I and Colony II bus programs, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is developing a CubeSat bus reference architecture and a set of minimum specifications useful for government applications. The architecture has application to software, electrical, and mechanical interfaces and aims at providing a flexible platform that can be endorsed by industry, supporting interchangeability of components while retaining customization for payload integration. We intend to present the framework of the architecture and its first embodiment in a flat satellite prototype

NPS-Solar Cell Array Tester

2009 Small Satellite ConferenceApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited