Introduction

SatNOGS project is a complete platform of an Open Source Networked Ground Station. The scope of the project is to create a full stack of open technologies based on open standards , and the construction of a full ground station as a showcase of the stack.

SatNOGS provides the basis for:

• Bulk manufacturing and deployment of affordable Satellite Ground Stations
• Modular design for integration with existing and future technologies
• A platform for a variety of instrumentation around Satellite Ground Station operations
• A firm platform for a Ground Station collaborative network (one to one, one to many, many to many)
• A community based approach on Ground Station development
• A solution for massive automation of operator-less Ground Stations based on open standards

There are a number of elements to the project that integrate hardware and software in a way that allows multiple observers to be connected to multiple ground stations so that tracking and monitoring satellites from multiple locations is possible. The data that is collected is publically available through the production environment.

At the centre is the global management network consisting of:

SatNOGS Network – Our observations, scheduling and discovery server. SatNOGS Network is a web application for scheduling observations across the network of ground stations. It facilitates the coordination of satellite signal observations, and scheduling such observations among the satellite ground-stations connected on the network.

SatNOGS DB – Our crowd-sourced suggestions transponder info website. SatNOGS Database is a crowd-sourced application allowing its users to suggest satellite transmitter information for currently active satellites. Its data are available via an API or via a web application interface, allowing other project to use its satellite transmitter information.

SatNOGS Client – An embedded system that receives the scheduled operation from Network, records an observation and sends it back. SatNOGS Client is the software to run on ground stations, usually on embedded systems, that receives the scheduled observations from the Network, receives the satellite transmission and sends it back to the Network web app.

SatNOGS Ground Station – The actual ground station instrumentation with tracker, antennas, LNAs and connected to Client. SatNOGS Ground Station is an open source hardware ground station instrumentation with a rotator, antennas, electronics and connected to the Client. It is based on 3D printed components and readily available materials.

 

Presentations on SatNOGS

Pierros Pappadeas presented "Going to space the Libre way" at the AmSAT UK RSGB 2017 convention. *

Scott Bragg presented "Decoding Satellites with SatNOGS" at linux.conf.au in 2017. *

Manolis Surligas presented "SatNOGS: An SDR-based Satellite Networked Open Ground Station" at FOSDEM 2017. *

Dan White presented ["SatNOGS: Satelllite Networked Ground Stations"] at the Digital Communications Conference in 2015.

Academic papers on SatNOGS Academic Papers