Session
Technical Session VIIIA: Innovative Mission Operations Concepts
Abstract
On February 23, 1999 South Africa's first satellite SUNSAT was launched. The satellite was designed and built entirely at the University of Stellenbosch, a project spanning 8 years. Up to 1999 the bulk of the development work was done on the satellite itself, with time constraints limiting the work done on the ground support system. This led to a situation where the ground station was developed in the two months prior to the launch and shortly afterwards. The system was developed with the specific purpose of supporting only SUNSAT. The final product was a ground support system consisting of a single OSCAR class ground station located at the University of Stellenbosch. The system was very effective in supporting SUNSAT, but the implementation made expansion and reuse of the system very difficult. The station requires a high degree of human operation and automating the system would require big changes in the software used. This article looks at the design of a new generation of ground support system, for use at the University of Stellenbosch's satellite program on future missions. Distributed architectures are used to enable components of the system to be physically located where resources are best utilised. The design also allows for increasing levels of automation to be introduced.
Design of a Distributed Ground Support System for Small Satellites
On February 23, 1999 South Africa's first satellite SUNSAT was launched. The satellite was designed and built entirely at the University of Stellenbosch, a project spanning 8 years. Up to 1999 the bulk of the development work was done on the satellite itself, with time constraints limiting the work done on the ground support system. This led to a situation where the ground station was developed in the two months prior to the launch and shortly afterwards. The system was developed with the specific purpose of supporting only SUNSAT. The final product was a ground support system consisting of a single OSCAR class ground station located at the University of Stellenbosch. The system was very effective in supporting SUNSAT, but the implementation made expansion and reuse of the system very difficult. The station requires a high degree of human operation and automating the system would require big changes in the software used. This article looks at the design of a new generation of ground support system, for use at the University of Stellenbosch's satellite program on future missions. Distributed architectures are used to enable components of the system to be physically located where resources are best utilised. The design also allows for increasing levels of automation to be introduced.
