Overview
The Spacelab-Transmitter is a Python in-development software to transmit telecommands to satellites using an SDR (Software Defined Radio).
A list of known satellites that are planned to use this software so far are presented below:
FloripaSat-1 [1]
GOLDS-UFSC (a.k.a. FloripaSat-2) [2]
Catarina Constellation (Catarina-A1, A2 and A3)
Persistent-1
Most of the satellites of the list above are developed (or in development) by the same research group: the Space Technology Research Laboratory (SpaceLab) [3], from Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil).
The Software
The objective of this software is to become the “universal” software of the Spacelab’s Satellites to transmit telecommands to any of its satellites.
As it is first focused on GOLDS-UFSC, right when we run the software we can see 18 buttons with the respective telecommands of this satellite:
Ping Request
Enter Hibernation
Deactivate Module
Erase Memory
Set Parameter
Data Request
Leave Hibernation
Activate Payload
Force Reset
Get Parameter
Broadcast Message
Activate Module
Deactivate Payload
Get Payload Data
Transmit Packet
Update TLE
Time Sync
CSP Services
For future satellites, new types of telecommands can be added to this list.
The software also has other functionalities, like doppler correction, data export, a logging system, and others. More details are described in the next sections of this documentation.
This application is written in Python, and is based on the experience gathered in the applications developed for the FloripaSat-1 mission. For telemetry decoding, there is also another application developed by the same research group, called SpaceLab-Decoder [4].