Design & development of CanSat with capability of inter-CanSat communication

• Main Author: Teng, Yu Hui.
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Satellite telecommunication
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53350
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

To advocate teamwork and opportunities to engage in real-world engineering projects among engineering students and professors, the Undergraduate Satellite Program (USP) was started in 2009. The program provided a platform for students to take part in hands-on space project. One such project under the USP was the Design and Development of CanSat which started in 2012. In this project, the aim is to develop two can-sized satellites (CanSat) to demonstrate real-time communication capabilities between the CanSats and the ground station. The scope of this project consists of hardware and software development of the CanSats as well as implementing a communication protocol. Prior to designing the satellites, several theories have been researched upon to provide useful information required in the development phase. These theories include radio frequency communication system, radio propagation, communication protocol as well as antennas. Thereafter, the types of software and hardware were decided based on the project’s task requirements. In order to ensure successful communication between the satellites, the various factors that were needed to be taken into consideration were discussed. Solutions to mitigate those factors were also developed. This resulted in the use of power amplifiers in the CanSats and Yagi-Uda antenna for the ground station; also the implementation of a simple protocol. The results have demonstrated that all the payloads on the CanSats are functional and that the CanSats are able to communicate with each other. The results from the thermal testing were analyzed as well. In summary, the CanSats are fully operational according to their requirements and are ready to be launched.