CLIMB’s Innovative Ground Segment: An Operations Perspective Employing Mission Planning Based on a Flexible SDR Ground Station Platform of an Orbit Raising CubeSat

CLIMB is an educational CubeSat mission by the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
The mission’s primary objective is to enter the inner Van Allen Belt to conduct radiation and magnetic
field measurements, and to monitor subsystem performance under elevated radiation levels. The mission
involves complex tasks, including continuous attitude changes and hundreds of propulsive maneuvers to
increase the orbit’s apogee from 500 km to 1000 km using a Field Emission Electric Propulsion (FEEP)
system. This paper presents a comprehensive mission operation concept to address these challenges, while
also introducing an approach to commission a global Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based ground station
network. Given the need for approximately 15 orbital maneuvers per day, significant daily activity planning
is required, along with ongoing simulation of orbital and attitude maneuvers while continuously monitoring
the satellite. Additionally, only limited financial and human resources are available, leading to a focus on
simplification and automation of ground operations. The concept utilizes five elements, including mission
planning, flight dynamics, monitoring, and commanding to cope with the many disciplines the operations
team is confronted with. To ensure constant monitoring, the open-source SatNOGS project, a global network
of amateur ground stations, is used and integrated into mission planning. Furthermore, a flexible ground
station platform based on GNU Radio and SDR technology is developed for frequent satellite commanding.
In conclusion, the CLIMB mission operation concept provides an efficient solution to mission planning and
ground station operations, while offering educational opportunities for students, fostering quick learning and
hands-on experience for future CubeSat missions.