ECE.07R – Cube Satellite Ground Station

• Matt Fleishman
• Orion Heinosch
• Ryan Melody
• Justin Ren

Cube Satellites have been an excellent means to cheaply test new ideas and get innovative projects into orbit, however the satellite itself is only half of what is required for these operations. For a cube satellite to be functional, there must be a way to communicate such that commands can be transmitted and data can be received back on Earth. We have designed our own CubeSat Ground Station that will facilitate communication for a cube satellite being developed by the UIC student organization, Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS). The SEDS organization laid out a few major requirements, such as being able to transmit and receive signals from low earth orbit at frequencies around 146 MHz and 437 MHz. SEDS has also requested the ability to access the system remotely while the system is placed outside and protected from the elements. To accomplish these goals, the ground station utilizes two antennas to transmit and receive radio waves, radio frequency hardware in a software-defined radio board to handle the processing of signals, and a single board computer to store information received as well as generate commands to be transmitted. The ground station features the recently released Raspberry Pi 5, a HackRF One sdr, 5V power supply, and handcrafted yagi-uda antennas made for the specified center frequencies. Our design also offers protection from the elements via a weatherproof chassis that will provide extra cooling for the system through the implementation of miniature 5V fans. We expect our ground station will be able to receive and transmit at radio frequencies within 10% of the 146 MHz and 437 MHz centers. To prove our system’s capabilities, we will attempt to receive imagery from various satellites and transmit audio files that will be received through an sdr and antenna that we have set aside for testing. All of these aspects of our ground station will allow for a system capable of transmitting and receiving signals to and from low earth orbit satellites, and will have the potential to grow with the organization to meet any future needs that may arise.