DATA RELAY RF SIMULATOR SYSTEM - EXPRO PLUS (RE-ISSUE)

Objectives: The objective of this activity is to develop a system simulator for testing the RF links of multi satellite missions. The focus of the simulator should be the modelling of a full set of satellite and laned assets transmitters and receivers with their precise orbit determination around different bodies of the solar system (e.g. Earth, Moon, Mars).Description: There is a high interest in the development of cluster of data relay satellites for planetary exploration and navigation. There are different studies and developments ongoing related to this concept both for Moon and Mars. Such a simulator system for Moon and Mars is considered an asset to support the development of this cluster missions and to support the development and test of the user terminals in an operating environment.The objective of the activity is hence to develop a RF simulator of a data relay system. The simulator shall be able to interface via RF either with a user terminal unit or with a data relay unit and to: Model full satellite's cluster transmitters and receivers. Model user terminals' transmitters and receivers. Emulate the user terminal spacecraft dynamic motion on planet surface, orbit, or during descent and ascent from the surface: Doppler, Doppler rate and delay. Emulate the relay satellite dynamic motion in orbit: Doppler, Doppler rate and delay. Emulate transmitter and receiver antenna gain and phase patterns of the relay satellite and of the user spacecraft host. Emulate the interference generated by the multiple transmitters of the cluster. Emulate multipath effects. Emulate any atmospheric attenuation or delay effects (for Mars case). Emulate the (two way) range measurement function of the relay link to characterize the performance and functionality.The RF relay simulator shall emulate the signals of each satellite of the cluster in both Sband and K-band in a modular fashion (i.e. S-band module independent from K-band module). The data relay RF simulator system shall employ software in the loop and hardware in the loop techniques to allow the user to design the test scenarios and to control external hardware blocks. The main goal is to have full control of all aspects of the useroperating environment, to enable exact repeatability of the test and to allow the application of systematic errors or incidents that are normally impossible to verify or not tested during the RF compatibility tests. The Emulation of the relay satellites shall be configurable to emulate different relay systems such as different (type of) Moon or Mars scenario.The following tasks are foreseen in this activity: Revision and consolidation of requirements. Architectural and detailed design, including the design of the simulator system at system level and building block level. The detailed requirements for each buildingblock of the system should be derived. It shall be determined if each building block need to be developed or if there are COTS blocks that can be embedded. Implementation of the hardware and software needed to constitute the system simulator prototype. Test and demonstration of the simulator.Deliverables: Hardware prototype, Software, Report.