Technical Research on ISS Russian Segment

Experiment Infotekh

Objective:

• Study of conditions of S band radio signal passage through the ISS – Moscow radio link.
• Development test of a method of data downlink at a rate of 4MB/s.

Tasks:

• Study of characteristics of S band radio signal propagation from the ISS RS through the ISS-Moscow radio link depending on the ionosphere condition, light-shadow situation, ISS distance and attitude.
• Modification of the ground S band receiving channel and its introduction into hardware/software complex UniScan-36.
• Organization and conduct of test operations to receive data from the ISS RS in Moscow using the ground hardware/software complex UniScan-36 and onboard TM/TC unit (a transceiver with antenna on a mechanical adapter) of Rokviss hardware.
• Organization and holding sessions to downlink data with digital images of URAGAN experiment (in case of successful completion of test operations).

Hardware Used:

Onboard Rokviss hardware consisting of:

manipulator monoblock;

transceiver with antenna on a mechanical adapter (TM/TC unit); onboard compute OBC; cable set.

Ground hardware segment :

• Hardware/software complex UnitScan-36 located in Moscow.
  The ground receiving channel consisting of antenna/feeder device and a low-noise S band amplifier-converter in UniScan-36 shall provide reception, processing and record of the digital flow transmitted from ISS at a rate of 4MB/s.

Expected Results:

Increase of the channel data flow to downlink data to the ground through the transfer to a higher frequency range of transceivers (S band).

Experiment Results:

Rokviss hardware operation data transmitted via TM/TC unit (up to 1GB).