Telemetry Modernization with Open Architecture Software-Defined Radio Technology

Abstract

Telemetry--the automated measurement and transmission of data from remote sources to receiving stations--plays a vital role in collecting critical information from flight vehicles and space assets. A telemetry system installed on a flight vehicle, for example, could transmit the vehicles air speed and Global Positioning System location to a flight termination system. Other data, such as the voltages, temperatures, and barometric or fuel pressures of onboard systems, may be of prime interest to flight-test engineers. Data are measured via onboard sensors, modulated onto a radio-frequency (RF) carrier, and transmitted, or telemetered, to a ground station. At the ground station, the telemetered information is received by a tracking antenna, demodulated, and reassembled into engineering data to provide real-time situational awareness of the flight vehicle and to be used in post-flight data analysis (e.g., of flight vehicle performance).

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2016
Accession Number
AD1014900

Entities

People

  • Mark A. Pippitt

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Bandwidth
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Processing
  • Demodulation
  • Detectors
  • Engineering
  • Field Programmable Gate Arrays
  • Frequency
  • Frequency Agility
  • Frequency Bands
  • Ground Stations
  • Processing Equipment
  • Radar
  • Radio Frequency
  • Signal Processing
  • Software Defined Radio
  • Telemetry

Readers

  • Aerospace Test and Evaluation
  • Enterprise Information Systems Architecture and Joint Command Capability Interoperability Support.
  • Radio communications and signal processing.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Satellites