Amount of funding awarded
6000
Budget Report
View budget report.
How the program has supported you
The project objective was to implement a functioning satellite ground station to support the ORCASAT project. ORCASat will be in orbit for over two years, giving the students the opportunity to operate and maintain an orbiting satellite, experimenting and learning from the endless possibilities high up in the atmosphere. Students got hands-on experience building new systems to improve the operations of future missions, while making space more accessible for future engineers interested in pursuing their own projects.
Students were responsible for designing and building the Infrastructure that would allow them to communicate with satellites in orbit. Using funds provided by PAF, the team went on to acquire the hardware used to build the actual ground station, as well as a variety of prototyping and debugging tools. The station now operates from the rooftop of the CIRS building, and proved to be an incredible learning experience for the students involved.
Outcomes
The ORCASAT satellite will be launching later this year, giving us the opportunity to finally communicate with it and support the mission where appropriate. Furthermore, the ground station can be used to communicate with other amateur satellites in orbit, presenting a learning opportunity for Orbit members, as well as other members of the student body. We have supported over a dozen students in the process of becoming licensed Amateur Radio Operators, and will be able to provide a training platform for future generations.
The ground station was put through a line-of-sight test, where a mock satellite with a functioning communications system was used to simulate the other side of the radio link. The team was successful in transmitting telemetry data, and even a picture. This represented a breakthrough in the team’s capability to develop radio systems from the ground up, and a commendable achievement for the students involved.
