Mission analysis of 3Cat-8 satellite
Tutor/a - Director/a
Estudiant
Dueñas Simón-Talero, Clara
Tipus de document
Treball Final de Grau
Data
2024
rights
Accés obert
Editorial
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
UPCommons
Resum
The Nanosatellite and Payload Laboratory (UPC NanoSat Lab) is a multidisciplinary initiative within the Barcelona School of Telecommunications Engineering. It primarily focuses on the development and design of nanosatellite missions, emphasizing the exploration of innovative concepts for small spacecraft systems, as well as the development and integration of subsystems and payloads for Earth Observation. This thesis aims to contribute to the development of 3Cat-8 mission by conducting a comprehensive mission analysis. Specifically, this analysis focuses on evaluating the nanosatellite's capabilities for advanced ionospheric observations, including nearly simultaneous ionospheric scintillation monitoring through Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) and multispectral polarized emission imaging. It begins with an examination of the satellite's operational environament, including orbital simulations, and extends to the implementation and evaluation of the ground station. Moreover, it includes a detailed calculation of the link budget and assesses the download capacity of the ground station for both S-band and X-band communications. This analysis delivers crucial information for evaluating the experimental capabilities of the satellite. It determines the number of experiments the satellite can perform, the volume of data it can generate, and its data download capacity. The most important aspect of the project is the analysis of the different operational modes: Camera and GNSS-RO. It involves evaluating the trade-offs based on the priority of the analysis, the combination of modes, and the data generated by each. The study examines whether it is feasible to implement the various cases or if there are data constraints. It also considers whether more data can be generated than the ground station is designed to download, or if fewer data are produced and, during the time the satellite has access to the ground station, all the generated data can be downloaded.
