Design and development of a portable satellite tracking ground station. Part II : software defined radio and command & control software development

Abstract

CubeSats are a classification of miniature satellites that are compact in size used by university research and hobbyist around the world due to their low cost of development. As with any communication system the CubeSat needs to transmit and receive signal from a point of reference. In this case, it would be a ground station which plays a pivotal role when it comes to satellite communication as it allows for a two-way communication with the CubeSat in space. The objective of this project is to design and build a portable ground station for satellite communication with the aid of software defined radio and GNU Radio software to allow for a cheaper and easier alternative of sending commands and receiving data packets from the CubeSat.