以嵌入式系統做為低軌衛星地面接收站之可行性評估

Abstract

人造衛星起源於人類對於科技的熱愛及展現，第一顆人造衛星 Sputnik 1 由當時的蘇聯政府發射成功後便開啟了各國的太空科技競賽，尤其是蘇聯與美國的較勁，也帶動了人造衛星的發展。近年來一些看似與人造衛星沒有直接關聯的技術發展趨勢，造就一般業餘民眾也可以擁有自己衛星及其接收站的可能。過去接收 RF訊號硬體，現在已可由Software Defined Radio (SDR) 相關技術取代，而接收硬體也由於廠商將硬體規格有限制的開放而讓業餘使用者可以使用廉價軟硬體便可接收衛星訊號。在衛星端，由於嵌入式系統的普及，微電腦如 Raspberry Pi 或者是微處理器可作為衛星電腦安裝至衛星端，也可以作為地面接收端。 本文主要將討論嵌入式系統作為小型衛星地面接收站的可行性，首先會簡單介紹目前衛星大致現況，並討論本文提到的地面站的任務及架構，再來將討論目前嵌入式系統應用技術以及這些技術整合測試結果及分析。

The launch of the first artificial satellite stemmed from the competition of technological advancement. When the Soviet Union launched world’s first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 in October 4, 1957, the space technology war between the United States of America and the then Soviet Union had perhaps accelerated the development of satellite systems. Since then, the satellites have been utilized extensively in different domains, such as military and science, as well as applications in everyday life, for instance, the GPS system on a car or reception of a TV show cannot possibly work without them. In recent years, with the progress of the technologies that seemingly unrelated to satellite development, has perhaps unintentionally helped to create the possibility for the general public to launch and build their personal satellites and ground stations, some of these technologies are embedded systems and software defined radio (SDR). Embedded systems such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino are becoming popular and considered cost effective by some. This paper will firstly introduce the status quo of satellites. Secondly, the mission and the architecture of the satellite ground station will be introduced. Lastly, the aforementioned technologies will be discussed in details and their integration, test results and analyses will be shown.