Extended Ground Station Concept and its Impact on the In-Orbit Communication with the Four-Nano-Satellite Formation NetSat

NetSat is a mission consisting of four 3Unit+ nano satellites developed at Zentrum fur Telematik e. V. (ZfT). It aims to demonstrate formation flight concepts for small satellites. It was successfully launched in September 2020. This paper gives a coarse outline of the mission. The updated ground station concept for this mission is motivated and outlined. Following, the concept of the hardware and software design of the ground station as well as the operational principle are described. The nowadays often used concept of using Software Defined Radio (SDR) for small satellite ground stations is applied here and its benefits for a formation flying mission are analysed. Our concept of taking advantage of the SDR is further outlined. First tests of the implemented parts are performed during Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) and show benefits during this critical phase. In addition, an outline of future steps in developing and implementing the concept is given.