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SATELLITE ENGINEERING

Aerospace Engineering

Lume-I

Serpens

PentaS

PentaS (Smart Software for Satellite-based Sensor Service) is part of the coordinated project HumSAT 2.0 that, based on the evaluation of the current HumSAT system with one satellite in orbit, will improve considerably its performance. HumSAT 2.0 aims to deploy a constellation of satellites with an intelligent control service that allows for capture and transmission of data generated by a net of world wide distributed sensors and ground stations, especially for sensors to monitor the environment at remote locations in areas without conventional communications infrastructure.  To achieve this goal, software plays a fundamental role, because physically unreachable hardware embedded in small satellites is impossible to be maintained, the sensors and ground terminals must comply with end-user requirements and the ground stations are distributed over the world.

Reaching the scope of the main objective largely depends on the ability of information transmission between the sensors and the satellites and from these to the ground stations taking into account the limitations of the communication protocols and the options for configuration of the embedded system within the satellites.  This requires an integrated software structure that covers different levels and aspects of technology.  Moreover, there exists the needs to provide a deliberative, rational, and autonomous system (hence, intelligent or smart) that permits adapting the performance to end-user requirements with an optimal use of the available bandwidth.

PentaS includes the support for software development of the on-board software based on the experience acquired during the design and implementation of the operating systems of the pico-satellites XaTcobeo and HumSAT demonstrator, the support for the control of the communication between the sensors and the satellites, as well as the support for the transmission of data and telemetry between satellites and ground stations.  Furthermore, automatic decision and planning software for the configuration of the overall system regarding its autonomous actions will be included in order to offer a transparent, efficient and adaptable service environment to the final user.

Given the difficulty of testing all possible subsystems in their final operational environment and in order to investigate alternative solutions, the construction of a software simulator that allows the system to be placed in situations similar to those before and after its launch is addressed. This simulation environment also serves for validation and, to some extent, verification purposes of the proposed and eventually implemented software system.

 

HumSAT-D

HUMDEWithin the HumSAT project the joint venture of several research groups of the Univesity of Vigo has built the pico-satellite HumSAT demonstrator (HUMDE) according to the cubesat standard following the ECSS (European Cooperation for Space Standardization) recommendations. The satellite has been launched on November 21st, 2013 (ESA eoPortal) from the Russian Launch Site Baikonur as one of the payloads on a Dnepr rocket.

In LIA, we coorporated in the design and implementation of the HumSAT demonstrator on-board software written in C (based on our previously developed on-board software for XaTcobeo):

  • HumSAT Mission Software (hms): the fully functional upper layers of the real-time on-board software following the system design specifications which uses the low-level drivers provided by INTA and the space link functionality including the communications modes developed by the telecommunications group.

  • HumSAT Mimicry Software: basic mimicry of the low-level drivers on API level for debugging purposes of hms on a Linux platform.

  • HumSAT Groundstation Simulation Software (hgs): a simple simulator on packet exchange level over UDP for debugging purposes of hms on the simulation platform.

  • HumSAT Debug Software (hds): a simulator of the serial interface to the HumSAT hardware for debugging purposes of hms on the simulation platform.

A brief overview of the HumSAT on-board software can be found in the file HDS-M-52000-obsw-overview.

Serpens-BAnother HumSAT radio system will be placed as payload in the 3-Cubesat SERPENS (Sistema Espacial para Realização de Pesquisa e Experimentos com Nanossatélites) currently developed and built in Brazil. In LIA we adapt the on-board software from HUMDE to work on the new platform.

 

 

 

XaTcobeo

Within the XaTcobeo project the joint venture of several research groups  has built a pico-satellite according to the cubesat standard within an educational environment following the ECSS (European Cooperation for Space Standardization) recommendations. The proposal of the University of Vigo has been granted a slot in the Vega maiden flight launched February 14th, 2012 (ESA eoPortal) as one (of seven) of the initially 9 participating universities among the 21 candidate projects.

Several research groups from different departments of the University of Vigo in joint work with the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) designed and built the pico-satellite XaTcobeo with two payloads and two experimental mechanism. The two payloads are a programmable software radio (UVigo design) and a radiation measuring device (INTA design). The two mechanisms include a solar panel deployment system (INTA design) and an antenna deployment unit (UVigo design).

In LIA, we coorporated in the design and implementation of the XaTcobeo on-board software written in C:

  • XaTcobeo Mission Software (xms): the fully functional upper layers of the real-time on-board software following the system design specifications which uses the low-level drivers provided by INTA and the space link functionality including the communications modes developed by the telecommunications group.

  • XaTcobeo Mimicry Software: basic mimicry of the low-level drivers on API level for debugging purposes of xms on a Linux platform.

  • XaTcobeo Groundstation Software (xgs): a simple simulator on packet exchange level over UDP for debugging purposes of xms on the simulation platform.

  • XaTcobeo Debug Software (xds): a simulator of the serial interface to the XaTcobeo hardware for debugging purposes of xms on the simulation platform.

Previously, students within LIA realized the following software development whose components run on the early testing hardware:

  • First on-board software running on prototype hardware for testing purposes.

  • Simulator of external devices via serial port in Java.

  • Analysis and design of a ground station data processing software.

xatcobeo1 xatcobeo02 xatcobeo03 xatcobeo04 xatcobeo05 carrabouxo
antenna front from above "é galego" under test hosted in P-pod Carrabouxo

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