Tracking System : Suaineadh satellite experiment

Abstract

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to present a tracking system for the Suaineadh satellite experiment. The experiment is a part of the REXUS (Rocket EXperiments for University Students) program and the objective is to deploy a foldable web in space. The assignment of this thesis is to develop a tracking system to find the parts from the Suaineadh experiment that will land on Earth. It is important to find the parts and recover all the data that the experiment performed during the travel in space. The implementation of this thesis investigates two different ways to track and find the experiment. The first way is to locate the experiment module by a Global Positioning System (GPS) and send the coordinates to a satellite modem, controlled by a programmed microprocessor. The other way is by using a radio beacon that sends a speciffic radio frequency. The results of this thesis presents a prototype for the tracking system with a GPS and the satellite modem and code example for the microprocessor. It also presents a working radio freqency beacon system on a Printed Circuit Board. The thesis had some unexpected incidents and had to change some directives. This rendered the work to take longer time then estimated. Despite the difficulties resulted this thesis in a working system to track the experiment