A lightweight low cost mobile multimission satellite terminal

In this paper, a lightweight low cost mobile multimission satellite terminal is proposed. The hardware and software solutions achieved to develop automatic ground terminal for use with a micro satellite data collection system is described. The compact design of the terminal facilitates easy mounting to a variety of payloads, including cargo containers, buoys, pipelines and boats. The turnstile antenna is better used for geographically fixed ground terminals and LEO satellite communication. It provides circular polarization at higher elevation compensates for satellite attitude movements. The orbit calculation methodology used expresses the satellite coordinates in the terminal relative topocentric coordinate system. The algorithm used in this paper is satellite visibility calculation algorithm.