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System Development and Spacecraft Testing of the Morehead State University Ground Station

Authors:
Timothy Pham
Benjamin Malphrus
Jeffrey Kruth
Robert Kroll
Michael Combs
Tobias Gedenk
Sarah Wilczewski
Jason Liao
Alexander Roberts
Jacob Lewis
Chloe Hart
Emily Mattle
E. Jay Wyatt

Keywords: Morehead State antenna; ground system; Lunar IceCube.

Abstract:
In support of the Lunar IceCube mission, as well as other Cubesats to be launched on the upcoming NASA Exploration Mission 1, the 21-m ground antenna at the Morehead State University in Kentucky, United States is under development to augment its telemetry, tracking and command capability at X-band (previous capability is limited to S-band). The new system is expected to be operational in 2020. This is the first collaboration between National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Deep Space Network (DSN) and university in ground system development. It will result in a university’s tracking station fully compatible with the DSN and thus increase DSN support to mission users with more antenna assets. The new hybrid system architecture combines commercially available RF components, custom-designed microwave feed for Morehead antenna, and specialized DSN digital equipment. Such an approach minimizes the implementation cost, offers learning opportunity for the students to gain experience in system design and implementation, and maximizes system capability and compatibility with the DSN. The ground station at the Morehead State University will handle signal transmission to and reception from spacecraft, and other signal processing functions such as modulation/demodulation, decoding, etc. The backend equipment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California will be responsible for data interface to the mission users. This architecture makes the Morehead antenna appears as one of the DSN antennas. Since early 2018, the 21-m ground system at Morehead has been upgraded with capability to receive spacecraft signal at X-band and process its telemetry and Doppler data. In mid 2019, the Morehead system will be further enhanced with a transmit capability for spacecraft command and ranging. Testing with spacecraft currently in operation such as Osiris Rex, MAVEN and Hayabusa2 is ongoing in an effort to validate system capability and characterize system performance. Preliminary results indicate that the downlink system is functional. They also enable assessment of the Gain-to-System Noise Temperature ratio (G/T) of the Morehead 21-m antenna.

Pages: 1 to 6

Copyright: Copyright (c) The Government of USA, 2019. Used by permission to IARIA.

Publication date: March 24, 2019

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4480

ISBN: 978-1-61208-694-1

Location: Valencia, Spain

Dates: from March 24, 2019 to March 28, 2019