RAPID: A High Speed Software Defined Radio Ground Station for CubeSat Space Research and Operational Missions

这是一个短期（不到一年）的努力，以开发一个软件定义的无线电地面站（SDRGS），供未来的地球空间研究和业务立方体卫星任务使用，采用高数据速率下行链路（即，SDRGS将以提议小组已经在国家科学基金会动态电离层立方体卫星实验空间气象使命上开发的原型版本为基础。通过这项工作，该小组将：1）进行现场调查和无线电频率使用的可行性研究（UHF和S波段），与政府在两个18米碟形天线站点的频率分配有关：Wallops飞行设施（WFF）和SRI（Santa Clara，CA）; 2）开发实时SDRGS架构，其具有在UHF和S波段获取1 Mbit/秒的数据速率的能力; 3）通过与DICE的在轨通信，在两个站点演示了超高频SDRGS的性能。SDRGS的设计和源代码在完成并通过DICE测试后，将公开提供并分发给CubeSat和纳米卫星社区使用。由此产生的SDRGS将不仅限于在沃洛普斯或SRI使用;这两个地点只是选择了这一拟议的工作，因为它们的高增益，18米的盘子和团队对这两个地点的熟悉。该项目将促进教育和学习，因为来自南加州大学电气和计算机工程系的两名研究生和两名本科生将执行大部分代码和硬件开发和测试。动态电离层立方体卫星实验（DICE）是美国国家科学基金会立方体卫星任务的首批选择和飞行之一。DICE项目由两颗立方体卫星组成，每颗重量不到2.2公斤，于2011年10月28日发射到高偏心率的低地球轨道。DICE CubeSats一起测量电离层中的电场和电子密度的梯度。DICE项目的主要科学目标是研究风暴密度增强（SED）的原因，这是一种主要的空间天气扰动和关注。

This is a short term (less than one-year) effort to develop a software- defined radio ground station (SDRGS) for use by future geospace research and operational CubeSat missions employing high data rate downlinks (i.e., 1 Mbit/sec).The SDRGS will be based on a prototype version that the proposing team has already developed on the NSF Dynamic Ionosphere CubeSat Experiment (DICE) space weather mission. With this effort, the team will: 1) perform a site survey and feasibility of use study for radio frequencies (UHF and S-band) that are relevant for government frequency allocations at two 18-meter dish sites : the Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) and SRI (Santa Clara, CA); 2) develop a real-time SDRGS architecture that has the capability of acquiring data rates 1 Mbit/second at UHF and S-band; and 3) demonstrate the performance of the SDRGS at UHF at both sites via on-orbit communications with DICE. When completed and tested with DICE, the SDRGS design and source code will be made publicly available and distributed for use by the CubeSat and nano-satellite communities. The resultant SDRGS will not be limited to use at Wallops or SRI; those two sites were simply chosen for this proposed work given their high-gain, 18-meter dishes and the team's familiarity with both sites. The project will promote education and learning in that two graduate students and two undergraduate students from the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at USU will perform the majority of the code and hardware development and testing.The Dynamic Ionosphere Cubesat Experiment (DICE) is one of the first NSF Cubesat missions to be selected and flown. The DICE project consists of two CubeSats, weighing less than 2.2 kg each, which were launched into a highly eccentric low Earth orbit on October 28, 2011. Together the DICE CubeSats measure gradients of electric fields and electron densities in the ionosphere. The main science goal of the DICE project is to study the causes of storm enhanced densities (SED), which is a major space weather disturbance and concern.