ITC/USA 2008 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fourth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 27-30, 2008 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / As part of a project to develop small satellites, we have developed a combined ground station and flight computer control software package using LabVIEW. These computer systems are used to acquire data from sensors, control communications links, provide automatic data acquisition capabilities, and provide a user interface. In this paper, we will look at the state machines that describe both sets of software, the challenges for the flight computer development given the PC/104 format, and show how the final product was deployed.

ITC/USA 2008 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fourth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 27-30, 2008 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / A traditional Receiver, Modulator, Bit Synchronizer, Frame Synchronizer and Front-End Processor (FEP) with local RAID storage from numerous satellite ground station equipment providers is typically used to satisfy current needs in mission ground stations. The development of Software Defined Radios (SDRs) with reprogrammable personalities has led to the consolidation of these processing elements, and will become the standard for years to follow. CVG-Avtec Systems, Inc. has been a pioneer in the SDR industry, integrating several ground station functions into a one system solution. Its High Data Rate Modem (HDRM) architecture replaces racks of previous generation equipment, providing greater functionality in a smaller footprint. The Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based HDRM is a one system solution that inputs Intermediate Frequency (IF) data and outputs packetized data over IP for data distribution. These new architectures are capitalizing on the revolution in electronics and networking technologies. This paper will discuss the architecture of the HDRM and how it optimizes ground station data processing in a high-rate environment.

ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / As the frequency spectrum becomes more crowded each day, preparation for placement of tracking ground station in tracking environment gains more importance. Existence of high power weather ground radars, airport approach equipment, and various other RF sources in the environment necessitates the test teams to be more cautious. This paper discusses, implemented design changes to an S-band antenna system to reduce the in-band interfering power, calculation of the effects from nearby interferers, analysis of the environment during placement of the mobile ground system by Honeywell telemetry teams.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper will describe the effort to provide a common telemetry system for the Control Center Complex (CCC) which will process data from both the space shuttle and the space station vehicles. It is being developed for the manned spaceflight program at Johnson Space Center. Space shuttle uses a traditional Inter-Range Instrumentation Group (IRIG) telemetry format and Space Station Freedom utilizes the more recently developed Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) standards for packet-based telemetry Although the two telemetry streams are very different in structure, a front end system is being developed which will isolate the differences and provide a common data format to the downstream elements of the control center. Because of this, a CCC workstation could receive and process data from either space station or space shuttle or both using a identical set of workstation program tools. The generic telemetry front end processor, which is called the Consolidated Communications Facility (CCF), will not only provide a cost effective method of processing space shuttle and space station data, but also will position the CCC to support anticipated requirements of' future programs. The development goals for the CCC are to reduce development and sustaining costs. In the CCF project, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment is stressed to allow modular maintenance. In addition, the project has emphasized the development of a automated features in the telemetry stream selection and processing which reduce the amount of operator attention needed. The system has been designed to include robotics in the recording operation and artificial intelligence for detecting faults. This paper will review the concept development for processing telemetry and outline the architecture of the front end CCF project. It will discuss the goals and major influences on the design, and provide a status on the development. Ability of the current COTS marketplace to meet the goals will be discussed. In summation, this paper will describe generic telemetry processing in the context of the CCC being built at Johnson Space Center.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The architecture and capabilities of Navy Flight Test’s latest generation telemetry system are described. The Real-time Telemetry Processing System (RTPS) is the name ascribed to successive systems at the Patuxent River Navy Flight Test complex since 1973. This version of the system, dubbed RTPS IV, and the associated facility improvements will enable the Navy to support the next generation military fighter, the Joint Strike Fighter, and every other ongoing and planned Navy test program.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 29-November 02, 1990 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Expert systems can be of great benefit to analysts, mission controllers, and flight safety officers who must make real-time decisions based upon a myriad of quickly changing parameters. Operators may require extensive training to view a limited parameter set or they can be aided by computers systematically monitoring many parameters. But, even today’s powerful general purpose computers and workstations are limited in their capabilities to monitor (i.e., process) the desired number of parameters. Thus, applications are distributed across multiple platforms. A telemetry ground station front end system (i.e., a real-time data server) that distributes preprocessed data to multiple knowledge stations over standard communications networks is presented.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / Orbiting satellites can be tracked by following preprogrammed ephemeris data in the ground station controller. This tracking method is advantageous, because of the reduced acquisition cost of non-autotracking receiver and antenna feed components. Further, widely separated frequency bands can readily be tracked, without the complexity of a frequency specific auto-track system. Two types of mobile tracking systems are described. They are composed of elevation-over-azimuth-over-tilt and of an X-Y axis pedestal configuration. The calibration methods for establishing time and geographical references are discussed, as well as the challenges of minimizing the effects of system and environment induced error contributors.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / This paper discusses the design, configuration, and operation of a satellite station built for the Center for Space Telemetering and Telecommunications Laboratory in the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Engineering at New Mexico State University (NMSU). This satellite station consists of a computer-controlled antenna tracking system, 2m/70cm transceiver, satellite tracking software, and a demodulator. The satellite station receives satellite telemetry, allows for voice communications, and will be used in future classes. Currently this satellite station is receiving telemetry from an amateur radio satellite, UoSAT-OSCAR-11. Amateur radio satellites are referred to as Orbiting Satellites Carrying Amateur Radio (OSCAR) satellites.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / In this paper, we propose a receiver design for satellite ground station use which can demodulate a waveform without specific knowledge of the data rate, convolutional code rate, or line code used. Several assumptions, consistent with the Space Network operating environment, are made including only certain data rates, convolutional code rates and generator polynomials, and types of line encoders. Despite the assumptions, a wide class of digital signaling (covering most of what might be seen at a ground station receiver) is captured. The approach uses standard signal processing techniques to identify data rate and line encoder class and a look up table with coded sync words (a standard feature of telemetry data frame header) in order to identify the key parameters. As our research has shown, the leading bits of the received coded frame can be used to uniquely identify the parameters. With proper identification, a basic receiver autoconfiguration sequence (date rate, line decoder, convolutional decoder) may be constructed.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / A multi-platform network design that is automated, bi-directional, capable of store and forward operations, and low-bandwidth has been developed to connect multiple satellite ground stations together in real-time. The LabVIEW programming language has been used to develop both the server and client aspects of this network. Future plans for this project include implementing a fully operational ground network using the described concepts, and using this network for real-time satellite operations. This paper describes the design requirements, RF and ground-based network configuration, software implementation, and operational testing of the ground network.