Is the SatNOGS network capable of uplink?

SatNOGS
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Hello, I am part of a CubeSat team wishing to receive images from the CubeSat by first completing a handshake between the satellite and ground station before payload data is sent. As we are using UHF we plan to uplink across multiple ground stations for speed. I want to know if SatNOGS is capable of providing this? If not is there any recommended method for achieving this set up?

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Hello, can you mention what you satellite/team/origin name? I think its unwise to ask help to the community without mentioning who you are or where are you from.

AFAIK I am not sure if current SatNOGS network has the uplink capability, as most if not all the network is only for downlink/receive only capability using SDR. There may be some projects like this though I am not sure what is the continuity.

TL&DR, I am sure if you have and can built a CubeSat, I think you should have your own ground station as responsibility. Also what is your mission? Please remember SatNOGS is a community based projects, so a commercial one should be no go (in my humble opinion).

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Hi @ao1 and welcome!

I confirm that currently SatNOGS Network is capable only for downlink, there is a plan for uplink too but not a clear roadmap yet.

The best approach to use the Network stations for downlink, that have been tested from various missions, is to be able to schedule downlinks on your cubesat.

The scenario goes like that:

  1. You create a schedule with timestamps when your satellite will downlink data (timestamps can be random calculated to be over Network’s stations or after discussion with the community which may help 3rd party station owners to participate too)
  2. You upload the schedule to your satellite and announce the final schedule (for example in a thread here in the community)
  3. Operations team and station owners schedule the Network’s stations based on the announcement
  4. If everything goes well, we will have successful reception of the data
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The CubeSat project is APSS-3 (for Auckland Programme for Space Systems). It is a university project that collects data and only intends to be an educational resource.

We are also setting up our own ground station and are deciding if we would benefit from integrating it into the SatNOGS network.

Thank you for the response.

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Good luck with the project! As its been said unfortunately it’s not clear about the uplink capability but for downlink, that would benefit your team a lot.

We would gladly receive the satellite downlink/telemetry with or without the SatNOGS station. Because of the vast network, it’s not rare that the satellite beacon received by one of the many stations less than an hour after deployment, sometimes even minutes.

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