GlobalEducationalNetworkfor.PDF

SSC07-XI-6 Global Educational Network for Satellite Operations (GENSO) Kyle Leveque, Dr. Jordi Puig-Suari, Dr. Clark Turner California Polytechnic State University, SLO {kleveque, jpuigsua, csturner}@ Abstract in the same launch. Additionally, universities tend to build a single primary ground station on or near their campus in order to communicate with their satellite. The GENSO project is an international project that However, communications with the satellites can only officially began in October 2006. The main goal of occur while the satellite is visible, giving most uni- the project is to improve educational spacecraft com- versities a communications window of only 30 to 45 munications by creating an international network of minutes a day. This small window combined with the university and amateur ground stations. With the re- extremely slow data rates means that many univer- alization of such a network, more experimental data sity Cubesat missions are limited by the amount of can be downloaded, a greater number of students can data that they can download from their