An experimental low-cost ground station for the small satellite project BIRD

An experimental ground station (EGS) for the earth observing small satellite project BIRD of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), is developed. The German Space Operations Center (GSOC) has the main responsibility for BIRD operations, while data reception is done by the receiving station in Neustrelitz. The objective of the EGS is to investigate and demonstrate direct user reception of regional data from earth observing satellites with a "low-cost" ground station as well as to analyze autonomous activity capabilities and experimental tests for mission operations. For this purpose, a small ground station with data reception and commanding capabilities is built. The station is located in Berlin on the top of the institute building. Many local authorities, such as agriculture or fire combat departments for example, needs only regional limited data to do a more efficient work in their region. The basic idea of the EGS is therefore, to analyze the capabilities and limits of a low-cost ground station, which gives the end-user, only the data which is needed by the local end-user. The antenna site of such a Station can be small, which is one of the important cost drivers. This paper shows the characteristics of such a station, which is developed for the BIRD satellite. Although the development work is still ongoing, it can be seen, that using a smaller coverage and COTS (Commercial of the Shelf) components (such as standard PC's), it is possible to develop a low-cost ground station, which meets the requirements for the described objectives. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.