Development and test campaign of a GPS-based navigation sub-system for the ESEO mission

This paper deals with the presentation of the contribution provided by the University of Bologna to the ESA ESEO mission. Since 2013 the University of Bologna is developing one of the payloads that will operate on board of the ESEO spacecraft: a GPS receiver for small satellites, able to provide real time high quality position fixes with reduced manufacturing time and costs. This is possible thanks to the navigation filter, hosted on board of the payload, that processes together the GPS observables provided by the COTS front-end, OEM615 receiver from Novatel, with an accurate model of the orbit dynamics. This paper presents the work done so far on the design and development of the GPS Payload: the whole architecture of the device and the navigation algorithm will be briefly described, while particular focus is given to the update status of the project and on the test campaign carried out at a sub-system level on the device. The current state of the design is between CDR and TRR and the manufacturing of the PFM is already started. Also the firmware is entering the final development phase, with the filter design and verification foreseen to be completed by the end of June 2016.