Design and Development of the Space Campus Ground Station for Small Satellites

With the launch of the first CubeSat a trend of easy access to Low Earth Orbit was started. Today many educational institutes around the world design, build and operate CubeSats for educational as well as scientific purposes. This Master thesis work presents designs and development in hardware and software to achieve a flexible ground segment at the Luleå University of Technology Space Campus in Kiruna, Sweden. The existing ground station is adapted to support more frequencies and modes of operation to enable future nanosatellite projects at the university easy access to space communication. New equipment is procured and installed with existing equipment in a new location using a 19 inch rack. The thesis presents a ground segment design using software-defined radio to promote flexibility and adaptability. Software development for the ground station is carried out together with Remos Space Systems a start-up at the Arctic Business Incubator that is developing a commercial ground station software. Furthermore a brief analysis of establishing a S-band receive-only ground station at the university is conducted and a trade-off analysis regarding mission control software is made. The thesis lays the foundation and highlights future development needs for the Space Campus ground station to become operational again