Mobile ground communication station
Abstract
The current ground control architecture at Santa Clara University uses static facilities to communicate with nanosatellites, confining the satellite contacts to whenever the satellite is overhead. In order to assist operations, a mobile satellite communication station was developed to increase the amount of contact time with the satellite. The station has S-band communication capabilities as well as amateur band reception capabilities handled by a software-defined radio. To increase mobility, a stowage mechanism was designed to speed up setup and breakdown processes and an antenna auto-calibration system was created to eliminate the dish calibration process. The station is able to send commands to the satellite as well as receive mission data.