Telemetry Ground Control Station (GCS) and Antenna Tracking Design for Indonesia Rocket Payload Competition (KOMURINDO) 2014.

Bagus Hanindhito^1,a, Ashbir Aviat Fadila^2,a, Antonius Perdana Renardy^3,a, Didit Pringgondani^4,b, Muhammad Ridha^5,c
aDepartment of Electrical Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
^bDepartment of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Faculty of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
^cDepartment of Telecomunication Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia
Email : ¹hanindhito@bagus.my.id, ²ashbir@yahoo.com, ³aperdana@gmail.com, ⁴diditpringgondani@gmail.com, ⁵m.ridho2210@yahoo.com

Abstract—Kontes Muatan Roket Indonesia / Indonesia Rocket Payload Competition (KOMURINDO) is an annual contest which is held by Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN). For 2014, the contest will take place in Kebumen, Central Java with its topic “Long Range Attitude Monitoring of Balistic Rocket Payload”. This project is intended to prepare a rocket payload and its supporting equipment to join the competition. It is divided into two sub-system: rocket payload and ground control station.

The rocket payload will be launched using a rocket and will be automatically ejected from the rocket after desired altitude is reached. It will have accelerometer, gyroscope and IMU sensors to monitor its attitude. Moreover, it should have a color camera to take color picture during descent and GPS to report its position which will be useful for recovery process after the payload hits the ground. A small parachute will automatically be deployed right after separation from its rocket to slow down its descent. A communication line for data exchange must be maintained between the rocket payload and Ground Control Station during the time of the mission.

The Ground Control Station consists of telemetry equipment and an antenna that has object tracking capability. The telemetry equipment will acquire sensor data and image data from the rocket payload. It also can send a command if it needed to do so (i.e. power saving mode). Meanwhile, the object tracker will move the antenna automatically so that the antenna can point directly to the rocket payload, maintaining its communication line quality. The acquisition of the data is crucial thus the communication system must be designed to detect data packet error and correct them if possible.

Index Terms— Antenna Tracking, Ground Control Station, Rocket Payload