Design and Development of Ground Station Network for CubeSats
Constellation, Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds
Department of Applied Science for Integrated System Engineering, Master Course
Student ID: 15350945 Name: Apiwat Jirawattanaphol
Introduction
The Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds (JGMNB) project [1] shortly “BIRDS” is a multinational project forcapacity building towards sustainable space program in participating countries. BIRDS project is a satellite constellation
project where 15 students from Japan, Ghana, Mongolia, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Thailand currently enrolled in SpaceEngineering International Program, Kyushu Institute of Technology. This constellation of five 1U CubeSats is planned
to be released to the orbit from International Space Station in fiscal year 2017. BIRDS CubeSats carry two cameras onboard as a main payload and the main mission is to capture photographs of the homeland of participating countries, andsend image data back to the Earth via the communication systems using UHF/VHF amateur radio frequency. BIRDS
project ground station network (BIRDS GSN) is designed to support the communication systems of five BIRDS CubeSatsby connecting the seven ground stations of each member countries by internet network to increase the communication
time between ground station and satellite. This work can increase the downlink data throughput and then ground station
can download more data from CubeSat. During the operation time, each ground station shall access the operation plan
through the pre-programed in the central server, and uplink a set of command to CubeSats, as well as receive mission
data from CubeSats by using the satellites tracking system. Afterwards, the received mission data will be stored in thecentral database.

BIRDS GSN Concept

BIRDS GSN Member

BIRDS Ground Station Network
The current member of the BIRDS ground station network project includes Kyushu institute of Technology in Japan,
National University of Mongolia in Mongolia, All Nations University College in Ghana, The Federal University ofTechnology Akure in Nigeria, BRAC University in Bangladesh, King Mongkut's University of Technology North
Bangkok in Thailand and National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan.
Currently, the ground station already has been installed in Japan, Ghana and Taiwan and other member are in process ofdevelopment the ground station in their country.
System Architecture and Design
The BIRDS ground station network architecture includes three main parts such as Ground Station Network Device(GSN Device), Central Server and Mission Control Center.
•Ground Station Network Device will be installed at each BIRDS ground station. The GSN device is comprisedof a data transfer module and a Software Define Radio (SDR). This equipment is used to transfer the mission
data and I/Q data from SDR to be collected in the central server. Moreover, it shall access to the central server
for a satellite operation schedule that used to control each ground station.

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The central server has a database to accumulate the mission data that has been received from satellite and collectthe satellite operation schedule to send to command each ground station. The central server will be located at
Kyushu institute of Technology, Japan.
Mission Control Center is used to program the satellites operation schedule following the project mission andsend to collect in the central server.

BIRDS GSN Architecture

BIRDS GSN Device

Test Result
The functional and integration tests were performed to verify the functionality, compatibility of the groundstation system with BIRDS satellites. In the functional test, CW beacon and mission data were received and decoded at
ground station, and uplink command was successfully transmitted to the satellite. And in the integration test, the received
data at ground station was successfully at GSN Device and transferred and stored in the central server.

GSN Integration Test

BIRDS GS AntennaConclusion
BIRDS project ground station network is proposed and designed to support the BIRDS project missions byconnecting the seven ground stations of each BIRDS project member countries by internet in order to increase thecommunication time between the ground station and satellite. BIRDS ground station network is able to improve thedownlink data throughput.
Reference[1] Arifur R. Khan, George Maeda, Hirokazu Masui, JGMNB project member and Mengu Cho; Five Nations CubeSatConstellation; An inexpensive test case for learning and capacity building. 3rd IAA Conference on University Satellite
Missions and CubeSat Workshop & International Workshop on Lean Satellite Standardization Rome, Italy. Nov, 2015