INTA selects Alén Space as a supplier of its new ground station

April 6, 2022

The Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) has chosen Alén Space as the supplier of its new ground station at the Canary Islands Space Centre (CEC) in Maspalomas. Its mission will be to monitor the future ANSER mission (Advanced Nanosatellites Systems for Earth Observation Research), in which the two entities had previously collaborated.

Thanks to Alén Space’s expertise in the ground segment, INTA selected its proposal as the most reliable option to provide a complete ground station that can operate in 400MHz UHF band. Alén Space’s solution includes a Yagi antenna, an integrated radio that can capture UHF data and two radio signal amplifiers.

The Spanish company will supply INTA with its comprehensive GS-Kit solution, a package that includes everything necessary to track satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The GS-Kit provides the structure, a rack line with a dual Software Defined Radio (SDR) solution compatible with GNU Radio and the ground station control software.

Therefore, INTA ensures the tracking, telemetry and telecommand (TTC) capabilities of the ANSER mission, with a new ground station at the CEC in Maspalomas that will allow it to increase the coverage of satellite passes in its orbit around the Earth.

The ANSER project is an Earth observation mission, which foresees the launching into orbit of a cluster of three nanosatellites to monitor the quality of water in Spanish reservoirs and swamps, as well as studying global warming caused by the increase in greenhouse gases and solar radiation.

A few months ago, the Alén Space team oversaw the development of the Inter-satellite Link (ISL) system to enable direct communication among satellites with a range of about 100 kilometres for the ANSER mission.

This new ground station is expected to be delivered in Maspalomas this April with a two-year guarantee period.

Featured image: NASA