Horning, James

Magallanes, Lara

Minelli, Giovanni

Newman, James

Phelps, Ron

Rigmaiden, David

Weitz, Noah

English

Calhoun, Institutional Archive of the Naval Postgraduate School

Calhoun: The NPS Institutional ArchiveDSpace RepositoryFaculty and Researchers Faculty and Researchers' Publications2020-05-20The Mobile CubeSat Command and Control(MC3) Ground Station NetworkMinelli, Giovanni; Magallanes, Lara; Weitz, Noah;Rigmaiden, David; Phelps, Ron; Horning, James; Newman, JamesNaval Postgraduate SchoolMinelli, Giovanni, et al. "The Mobile CubeSat Command and Control (MC3) GroundStation Network: An Overview and Look Ahead." Space Systems Academic Group,Naval Postgraduate School, May 20, 2020http://hdl.handle.net/10945/64471This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, UnitedStates Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in theUnited States.Downloaded from NPS Archive: CalhounThe	Mobile	CubeSat	Command	and	Control	(MC3)	Ground	Station	NetworkGiovanni Minelli, Lara Magallanes, Noah WeitzDavid Rigmaiden, Ron Phelps, James Horning, James NewmanSpace Systems Academic GroupNaval Postgraduate School20 May 2020DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School2MC3 MissionCommunity‐based US government ground infrastructure for SmallSatsDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate SchoolHSFL – Hawaii Spaceflight LabUAF – University of Alaska FairbanksNPS – Naval Postgraduate SchoolSDL – Space Dynamics LaboratoryUNM – University of New MexicoAFIT – Air Force Institute of TechnologyUSCGA – US Coast Guard AcademySMDC – Army Space & Missile Defense CommandMLB – Malabar Transmitter AnnexTAMU – Texas A&M UniversityUSNA – US Naval AcademyMC3 StationsDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate SchoolCurrent/Past Missions:• Colony II Program (2012‐2015)• PROPCUBE x 3 (2015/2017)• Polar Scout x 2 (2018)• RSAT (2018)• DHFR x 2 (2017/2018)• NPSAT1 (2019)• FalconSat‐7 (2019)Supported MissionsUpcoming Missions:• CNCE Blk 1 (2020)• CNCE Blk 2 (2020)• CIRCE (2021)• SMDC (Multiple)• Square Dance (multiple)• STPSat‐4 (2020)• MOLA & OTTER (2022)• And more…4DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School MC3 SummaryBand Frequencies DesignatorUHF uplink 449.75 – 450.25 MHz 12K5F1D43K0F1DUHF downlink 902 ‐ 928 MHz 115KG1DS‐Band uplink 2025 ‐ 2110 MHz 2M00G2D2M45G1DS‐band downlink 2200 ‐ 2290 MHz 1M60G1D2M00G2D2M45G1DX‐band uplink 7190‐7250 MHz TBDX‐band downlink 8025 – 8400 MHz TBD5DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate SchoolBent‐pipe communications from remote operations center6SATRN SoftwareSatellite Agile Transmit Receive Network (SATRN)DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School7AWS Integration• Remote bent‐pipe operations• Conforms to DoD cybersecurity requirements• Various levels of mission security• Industry and universities supported• Scalable to many mission operations centers and remote ground terminals (RGTs)• Interfaces to other ground networksAmazon Web Services (AWS)https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp‐content/uploads/2019/06/Cloud‐Strategy.pdfDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School8AWS IntegrationSevillaparra, J., “Integration of Mobile CubeSat Mobile Command and Control (MC3) with Amazon Web Services”, M.S. Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, June 2020Mission A...AWS SATRNServerSATRNClient ASATRNClient BSATRNClient N. . .SATRNGroundSiteSATRNHardwareManagerRGT 1SATRNGroundSiteSATRNHardwareManagerRGT 2SATRNGroundSiteSATRNHardwareManagerRGT NMission BMission N...VPN VPNResearch	TopicsDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School10Laboratory Facilities• Satellite Operations Center• Consoles for operating satellites and managing MC3• Hands‐on exposure to flight operations• Radio Testing Laboratory• Prototyping ground station equipment for use on network• Testing with real satellites• Small Satellite Laboratory• Vibration, TVAC, 3D Printing, Circuit design• Clean room, flight hardware handling• Interdisciplinary staffDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School11Radio LaboratoryDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School12Radios Under Study (RUS)RUS‐1:National Instruments USRP‐2922RUS‐2:Ettus Research USRP B205mini‐iRUS‐3:Kratos SpectralNet Lite Digitizer & qRadio SDRRUS‐4:AMERGINT satTRAC Signal Converter & baseband modem Wood, S., “Trade Study of Commercial Software‐Defined Radio Technologies for Small‐Satellite Ground Station Network Command and Control Applications”, M.S. Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, June 2020DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School13Objectives of Study• Characterize performance/parameters of the four RUS• Evaluate their suitability for utilization in small satellite ground stations like MC3 • Compare performance of high‐end commercial systems against the baseline USRP systems• Experiments conducted to evaluate radio parameters to include:• Receiver Noise Figure• Receiver Image Rejection• Receiver Sensitivity• System BER Performance• GUI FunctionalityDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate SchoolNoise Figure Results• Independently verified the noise figure values for RUS‐1:3• Unable to conduct experiment on RUS‐4 due to lack of access to baseband sample dataRUS Manufacturer Receiver ComponentSystem DescriptionSpecified Noise Figure (dB)Measured Noise Figure (dB)RUS-1 National InstrumentsSBX-40 RF DaughterboardBaseline USRP Standard 7 5.55RUS-2 Ettus Research B205mini (AD9364 Chip)Common RF System-on-Chip (Soc)8 6.32RUS-3 KratosSpectralNet Lite Digitizer(AD9364 Chip)High-End Commercial System7 5.6RUS-4 AMERGINTsatTRAC Signal Converter (super-heterodyne)High-End Commercial System8 *Noise FigureDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School Direct Conversion IQ ImbalanceRUS‐1 (USRP‐2922) RUS‐2 (B205mini‐i) RUS‐3 (Kratos)Average IQ Imbalance Observed‐39.8 dBc ‐61.5 dBc IQ imbalance unmeasurableLargest IQ Imbalance Observed‐37 dBc ‐21.5 dBc IQ imbalance unmeasurableSmallest IQ Imbalance Observed‐40.9 dBc ‐93.5 dBc IQ imbalance unmeasurable• The IQ imbalance contributions experienced by the three direct conversion receiver architectures evaluated through experimentation• RUS‐1 exhibited consistent performance (~‐40 dBc)• RUS‐2 performed better but with large unexplained variance• RUS‐3 seemingly mitigates IQ imbalance contribution completely!DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School Receiver SensitivityTarget BER RUS-1 Pr (dBm) RUS-2 Pr (dBm) RUS-3 Pr (dBm) RUS-4 Pr (dBm)10-5 -94.5 -90.5 -89 -96• Super‐heterodyne receiver architecture inside AMERGINT satTRAC system (RUS‐4) proved to be most sensitive• Baseline USRP SDR RUS‐1 (SBX) performed admirably during experimentation• Similar results across all four RUS• Minimum power required to produce target BER ranged from ‐89 dBm (RUS‐3) to ‐96 dBm (RUS‐4)• Baseline USRP systems performance comparable and sometimes better than high‐end commercial systemsDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate SchoolBER Performance• No appreciable difference in BER performance between four RUS• Measurement in low‐SNR regimes challenging due to functionality SDR algorithms• Software seemingly fails before hardware/theoretical limits with all four RUSBER PerformanceDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School GUI Functionality• RUS‐1 and RUS‐2 operated with GNU Radio software utilized by small‐satellite community (top)• RUS‐3 operated with two separate proprietary applications (middle)• RUS‐4 operated with proprietary software applications (bottom)• GNU Radio platform extremely flexible but largely unsupported• Proprietary platforms offer more plug‐and‐play solutions but not without bugs, quirks, and rigidity requiring contractor support ($$$)DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School• Representative HAB flight• 100k ft burst altitude• 5 m/s assent• 5 m/s descent• X‐Band Transmitter• Antenna HPBW: 74 deg• Antenna gain: 6 dBi• Bandwidth 5 MHz• 8250 – 8400 MHz• Radio cost ~$2,500• Raspberry Pi• USRP B205mini• GNURadio solution• RF upconversion components• 3D printed structureX-Band High Altitude Balloon19DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School20ISC2NMember: International Small Satellite Command and Control Network (ISC2N) DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School21MOLA & OTTEREnglish, H., “Concept of Operations, Software Development, and Flight Integration Testing for a THz Imaging Camera Payload”, M.S. Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, June 2020THz Imaging‐‐Penetrates common materials‐‐X‐Band Test Radio‐‐Built by NPS students‐‐NZL Beacon Payload‐‐FlatSatNet‐‐Seeking STEM Experiment(s)2 x 6U CubeSatsDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School22X-Band Radio Development22CONOPTerahertz ImagingCamera (TIC)AD Corvus‐6 BusX‐band SDRpayloadNPS X‐band antenna as part of MC3 NetworkX‐band downS‐band upDigital Modulation, FEC and storing forward on‐board storage (SD Card) will be done on ZedBoardEthernet ‐ ACKZedBoardX‐micro up/downCoaxialS‐bandCommandsCoaxialS‐band TelemetryEthernet ‐ CMDTBD‐ CMDTBD ‐ ACKNPS RADOMETT&CDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School23LicensingForbes, A., “Sharing S‐Band Communications to Conduct Small Satellite TT&C”, M.S. Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, March 2018DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School24Licensing1. Verify new Small Satellites fall within appropriate spectrum certification2. Perform frequency selection and RFI analysis3. Initiate and complete coordination• NASA, NOAA, ENG4. Initiate RFA process referencing completed coordinationNASA/DoD/DoC (NDD) Coordination Process• Applies only to LEO• Mission duration < 5 years• Specific frequencies for satellites must still be selected• Earth stations given band assignments to support multiple missions• Reduced processing time (~1 yr per program)• Offers protection, streamlines process, efficient use of spectrumDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School25Optimization Research00Minimize    [ ( ), u( ), ] ( ( )) ( ( ), ( ))subject to                   ( ) ( ( ), u(t))( )( ( )) 0f foofffJ x t E x t F x t u t dtx t f x tx t xt tt te x t­    °°  ° °® °°  °°  ¯³Define: Objective, Dynamics, ConstraintsLeone, J., “CubeSat Pass Quality Analysis and Predictive Model”, M.S. Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, June 2018DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School263SAT/1GS (2ANT) DemoHSFL MC3MerryweatherFaunaFlora~ 25 minSTK PropagatorVideo FeedSatnet C2SDR DownlinkSDR UplinkDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School27Environmental Monitoring• Treat MC3 nodes as “satellites”• Collect health and environment telemetry• Introduce autonomous issue detection and classification• Remove operator involvement through autonomous issue resolution• Health and Environmental Monitoring System (HEMS) • Voltage, current, temperature, humidity telemetry• Device‐level power and network controllability• Inductive monitoring system (IMS)• Algorithm for real‐time telemetry interpretation• Trains on healthy ground station data• Automated G/T measurements in development• Trending for ground system performanceDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate SchoolWe’re looking for partnerships!• Ground network collaborations• Commercial and government networks• Additional SDRs/ waveforms• Partner with ground and spacecraft radio providers• X‐band expansion• Licensing• Hardware• Autonomous disaggregated constellation management• Machine learning• Automated ground station anomaly resolution• Laser Communications• Electronics Steered Arrays• Satellite transponders and passive tracking reflectors• Optical tracking/ space situational awareness• Additional resiliency• Software improvements• Cybersecurity – DoD accreditation28Future WorkDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate SchoolMobile CubeSat Command and Control (MC3)Space Systems Academic GroupNaval Postgraduate Schoolmc3@nps.edu29Contact InformationBackupDillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School31Radios Under Study (RUS)RUS 1RUS 2DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School32Radios Under Study (RUS)RUS 3DillonisthebestNaval Postgraduate School33RUS 4Radios Under Study (RUS)

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

https://calhoun.nps.edu/bitstream/handle/10945/64471/2020-05-20_mobile_cubesat_command_and_control_mc3_nasa_smallsat_virtual_institute_webinar.pdf?sequence=4

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

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