Precise Positioning and Attitude Determination of Microsatellites using a Software-Defined Radio

Alison Brown, Janet Nordlie, Peter Brown, and Charles Johnson

Abstract:	Current GPS technologies for satellite navigation are relatively costly, heavy, and utilize a high amount of power. This makes such systems difficult for small satellites to support. In this paper, we describe a lowcost, low-weight, low-power GPS navigation system to support smaller satellites. A key component of our solution involves our patented TIDGET-based receiver design, which takes a brief snapshot of GPS data and powers off until the next position fix is desired. The processing of the TIDGET snapshot data is implemented in a software defined radio (SDR) using a GPS software application. This approach shares the resources available within a spacecraft’s SDR to support both communication and navigation functions reducing the size, weight and cost of the hardware on a micro/nanosatellite. An important aspect of the TIDGET is its modular design, which allows multiple TIDGETs to be placed on the satellite shell for full GPS visibility and robustness to satellite spin.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2008 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 28 - 30, 2008 The Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	298 - 302
Cite this article:	Brown, Alison, Nordlie, Janet, Brown, Peter, Johnson, Charles, "Precise Positioning and Attitude Determination of Microsatellites using a Software-Defined Radio," Proceedings of the 2008 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2008, pp. 298-302.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In