SatNOGS (Satellite Networked Open Ground Station) project is a free software and open source hardware platform aimed to create a satellite

ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fr ...

network. 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.

History

The SatNOGS project was initiated during

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

SpaceApps Challenge in 2014 at Athens Hackerspace. The project then took part in and won the first place of the

Hackaday ''Hackaday'' is a hardware hacking website. It was founded in 2004 as a web magazine. Since 2014, Hackaday also hosts a community database of open-source hardware designs. History Hackaday was founded in 2004 by Phillip Torrone as a web maga ...

Prize 2014 competition. SatNOGS is currently a project of the Libre Space Foundation.

Overview

SatNOGS aims to provide a stack of technologies needed for a distributed network of

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

satellite ground stations. In order to implement such a stack the four following different sub-projects are developed SatNOGS v2 in FOSDEM 2015

Network

SatNOGS Network is a web application for scheduling observations across the network of ground stations.

Database

SatNOGS Database is a crowd-sourced application allowing its users to suggest satellite transmitter information for currently active satellites. Its data is available via an

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

Client

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.

Ground Station

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, readily available materials.

Operation

A November 2019 SatNOGS blog post summarizes total statistics since establishment: * 300+ operational ground-stations * 12,000,000+ observations * 380+ satellites with 810+ transmitters monitored * 51,000,000+ data frames

Tracking

The global array of ground stations contribute to an effective network for monitoring orbital satellites. The

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

utilized the SatNOGS network to gain initial status observations from the OPS-SAT

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

after launch in December 2019.

Notes and references

External links

SatNOGS Website
Ground stations Open-source hardware Amateur radio Software using the GNU Affero General Public License