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Development and Demonstration of PC-Based Satellite Telemetry Server System
Phone: (505) 255-4201
Due to the lack of hardware architecture standard for satellite front ends and the multitude of satellite telemetry formats, telemetry front ends can be expensive to develop and maintain-custom hardware and software solutions (unique for each satellite or station application) are often the only way to satisfy mission needs. Because of the tailor-made nature of these components, costs are often high, maintainability is difficult, and their use with other satellites is not feasible. The proposed investigation includes the development of a satellite front end that embodies the MAGIC objectives and architecture, and utilizes PC hardware and COTS components. This effort includes: 1) Design and prototype development of a satellite front end that uses IBM-PC hardware running Windows-NT, and COTS PCI telemetry data processing hardware; 2) The study of two front end hardware/software architectures. The first to frame format and time stamp only input data, and the second to perform real-time satellite-specific telemetry decommutation directly in the front end; 3) The functional design of the required hardware for the front end. 4) The design and development of a prototype front end Master Control Program (MCP) that runs under Windows-NT, and development of the required hardware drivers to support the prototype demonstration; 5) A prototype demonstration to illustrate operation of the front end MCP, determine hardware and network bandwidth, and demonstrate remote operation with a MAGIC analysis workstation.|Benefits: The potential DOD benefits include reduced cost, accelerated product, robust software and hardware, and reduced operator training. The commercial satellite industry (projected to be a $31B industry in hardware and a $131B market in services would find wide applications for a universal ground station front end that can service telemetry data from a large number of satellites.|
* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *