Turnkey Solutions

Turnkey solutions can be a good option for designers who want to focus more on the payload and systems engineering portions of the spacecraft. Table 11-1 lists some companies or organizations that develop and provide turnkey solutions for small spacecraft ground data systems.

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Table 11.0-1: Turnkey Solutions for Ground Systems

Product Manufacturer Status Specifications

ATLAS Global Network ASAT TRL 9 for ground infrastructure, TRL 8 for software integration

S-band, X-band, UHF (Ka-band in 2017)

KSAT Lite Kongsberg Satellite _Services TRL 9

X-band and S-band D/L and S-band U/L. VHF,

UHF, Ka-band D/L Surrey Ground

Segment

Surrey Satellite

Technology Ltd. TRL 9

S-band for U/L and D/L and X-band for D/L

ISIS Small Satellite

Ground Station ISIS B.V. TRL 9

Amateur and non- Amateur protocols for VHF, UHF and S-band

Endeavour TT&C Tyvak Inc. _{TRL 8+} VHF, UHF and 2.2 – 2.29 _{GHz (S-band)}

Open System of Agile Ground Systems (OSAGS)

Espace Inc. _{TRL 8 Additional HR/VHF/UHF} S-band for U/L and D/L.

receive capability GAMALINK Ground

Station Network

GAMALINK _{TRL 7+}

Provides VHF/UHF pack and S-band pack. Additional ranging and GPS support available Satellite Tracking

and Control Station

Clyde Space

TRL 8 VHF, UHF, L-band and 2.4 GHz

Planet Labs Ground Station

Network

Planet Labs TRL 9 5+ terabytes of data

downlinked per day

Spaceflight Networks Global

Ground Station Network

Spaceflight Networks TRL 9 Various bands, from UHF

to X-band

Assured Space Access Technologies (ASAT) is an affiliated corporation formed to develop the ATLAS global network of commercially available spacecraft ground stations, aimed at providing cloud-based solutions for space access. It provides global TT&C operations systems using the Amazon Virtual Cloud, which interfaces connectivity for the user to the ground stations. The

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supported frequency bands in which ATLAS operates are mainly S, X and UHF (Assured Space Access Technologies, 2014). The figures below show how the ATLAS ground service works with the cloud service (Figure 11.5) and the locations of the antennas around the globe (Figure 11.6). KSAT Lite is a low-cost ground station antenna network designed to support different phases of small spacecraft missions. The company has launched 20 ground station sites across the globe. KSAT Lite is an extension of the existing KSAT network, but implements more flexible options and procedures in terms of priority allocation, availability and pass selection. The KSAT network has uniquely located polar stations in the Arctic and Antarctic regions (Figure 11.7), providing from 85% to 100% availability on passes for spacecraft in polar orbit. The network also operates mid-latitude ground stations, providing access for many other orbits. The baseline KSAT 3.7 m antennas provide X-band and S-band for downlink and S-band for uplink. In addition, KSAT Lite offers VHF and UHF capacities that support a variety of system configurations. Ka-band support for the small spacecraft market was integrated in 2016 (Kongsberg Satellite Services AS, 2015).

Similar to KSAT Lite but on a smaller, university scale, the Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations (GENSO) system, by the European Space Agency (ESA), is a software networking standard for universities which allows a remote operator to communicate with their small spacecraft using participating amateur radio ground stations around the globe (European Space Agency n.d.). Data collection for this type of network allows several hours of data collection per day for any given spacecraft, as opposed to minutes per day with a single ground station.

Figure 11.5: Functional diagram of ATLAS ground system. Image courtesy of Assured Space Access Technologies (2014).

Figure 11.0.6: Locations of the owned and operated antennas of ATLAS ground systems. Image courtesy of Assured Space Access Technologies (2014).

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Innovative Solutions in Space B.V. (ISIS) also offers turnkey ground station solutions, supporting CubeSats and small spacecraft in the UHF, VHF and S-band for amateur and non- amateur radio bands.

Spaceflight Networks is another established ground operations provider offering cost-effective solutions in development, launch, communications, and operations. They have partnered with a number of agencies and other small satellite companies, including Kratos/RT Logic, in order to provide powerful, low-cost hardware and services (Spaceflight Networks, 2016).

The Open System of Agile Ground Stations (OSAGS) supports high-frequency communications for small spacecraft. Owned by Espace, Inc., OSAGS is a low-cost network of three equatorial S-band ground stations located in Kwajalein, Cayenne, and Singapore, that are based on software defined radio (Cahoy & al, 2012). The stations operate in S-band with a 2.025-2.0120 GHz uplink and 2.20-2.30 GHz downlink frequency. The agile system can support different spacecraft missions simultaneously and is readily available for any small spacecraft mission in need of low-cost ground segment support. Satellites are required to use dedicated software provided by Espace, Inc., and they must have the proper S-band capabilities to communicate with the system.

Government sponsored missions often use turnkey solutions offered by the Space Network (SN) (NASA 2007), Near Earth Network (NEN) (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2010) and Deep Space Network (DSN) (NASA 2015), collectively known as Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN). Prior to May, 2018, the DSN offered the only existing TT&C service for beyond Earth orbit, but Analytical Graphics, Inc (AGI) has announced a commercial deep space radar tracking system. The Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN) is even more tightly controlled than SCaN. However, the Air Force does make the services of the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) available to the public, particularly for space situational awareness in the form of two-lined element sets (TLEs) for tracking satellites, and conjunction alerts for potential collisions. AGI has developed a similar system in the commercial sector called the Commercial Space Operations Center (ComSpOC).

Some companies can also provide specific individual components to users that want to assemble their own customized ground stations. For example, Helical Communication Technologies specializes in quadrifilar helical antennas, made of four helical filars or windings that support right and left hand circularly polarized signals. These antennas receive and transmit signals from the ground station to amateur radio satellites in LEO at frequencies between 300 and 3000 MHz, and are particularly useful when receiving small spacecraft signals shortly after launch without the need for tracking or positioning equipment and associated tracking software. Due to the nearly omni-directional pattern, the quadrifilar helical antenna provides good gain at low elevation. KSAT and ISIS are also able to provide single antenna components that can interface with many different ground data systems. For example, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a solution from KSAT which provides KSAT-rugged antennas that interface with a customer’s own back-end equipment.