Cubesat Ground Station Implementation and Demonstration

Abstract: This project aims to develop a Cubesat Ground Station by utilizing amateur radio technology and COTS devices. Pursuing the work done by previous students, the system was finalised and then constructed. In addition, a further objective of this project is to design antenna mast support with tilting function for easy installation and maintenance.
Mast support design was carried out with the help of Catia V5 R17. As the structure will be bolted on the steel grid floor on the roof of B52A, it was suggested to be stronger as it will be on the roof and last for 10 years. With suggestions from amateur radio professional and mechanical technician, the support structure was designed to use two channels and then bolt to the base plate. Antenna mast was made of 3” and 2” galvanised steel tubes. To enable the pivoting function, a specially designed aluminium block is used to hold the mast and pivot around the pin joint.
Remote control of the Ground Station was enabled by remote controlling of the control computer. Splashtop desktop control software was selected for its fast control performance. However, to fully control the ground station, the power of each device has to be controllable, and also for the newly delivered polarisation switches. A Webserver controller was built by the inspiration of the IP Switch which was planned to use. It consists of an open source microcontroller Aruduino and its Ethernet Shield. Simple control interface was written in html code and embedded in the webserver. It controls the polarisation switches and power switch of each device, and also the radio on/off with a servo mechanism. Remote power on of the control computer was enabled by configuring its BIOS. Finally, the ground station is fully controllable.