L.A.R.S. - Mobile ground station for CubeSat operations

Many of the CubeSat and SmallSat operators in the academic field suffer from the fact that the ground station operations for Telemetry, Tracking and Control of their satellites is often quite challenging to maintain for the duration of a mission. The DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen, Germany, presents a remote controllable mobile ground station for CubeSat/SmallSat operations which completely fits inside a 20 ft shipping container. It operates in the VHF/UHF amateur radio frequency bands (144-146 MHz and 430-440 MHz) and is prepared for S band (2400-2450 MHz) using fully redundant state-of-the-art software-defined-radio transceivers. With the ground station presented in this paper, automated satellite operations with different satellites can be achieved. Tests with different SmallSats and CubeSats have demonstrated promising results of great performance with high sensitivity in reception, even at low elevations. Currently, the ground station is located for testing purposes at the Jade Weser Airport in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. In the near future it is planned to move the station to a northern location to achieve optimal contact opportunities to connect and remain in contact for longer durations in polar satellite orbits