Research Summaries

Back MC3 Network: 2021-22 Mission Operations

Fiscal Year 2021
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Space Systems Academic Group
Investigator(s) Minelli, Giovanni
Newman, James H.
Sponsor Department of Defense Space (DoD)
Summary This proposal describes the effort associated with the continued infrastructure research emphasizing CubeSat ground station systems. This supports DoD Space efforts in the emerging field of very small satellites. Infrastructure research is applied research and requires actual hardware and software at NPS and in the field for test and experiment. Specifically, this research and development effort includes the Mobile CubeSat Command and Control (MC3) ground station network. With the advent of CubeSats and other very small satellites, the number of active satellites is growing. Even swarms of CubeSats are being considered. This ground station research deals with the basic development of distributed ground stations and begins to deal with the "many satellites, few ground stations" optimization problem. The growing acceptance of the CubeSat, a very small satellite, as a means of accomplishing focused research objectives of national interest makes this project of great interest to the Space Systems Academic Group at NPS. The Naval Officers and other students in the NPS Space Systems Engineering and Operations curricula have the opportunity to participate in Directed Studies and Thesis research related to this proposal. The Space Systems curricula benefit from the opportunity to integrate laboratories which use active satellites in orbit and an active network of ground stations. In addition, this work supports the development of national capabilities in space to ultimately benefit the Naval Service and the warfighter. A substantial portion of this funding would be used to maintain the MC3 network hardware infrastructure and continue mission operations for existing and upcoming satellite flights. This aligns with the SSAG's interest in applied infrastructure research, enabling a communications network that supports DoD space-based research, SSAG research such as autonomous ground station and satellite operations, and hands-on education opportunities for NPS students.
Keywords
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal