31. Development of a Data Acquisition System for Earth Observation, Based on a Commercial Software Defined Radio Platform in Combination with Open-Source Software

Earth Observation is one of the major applications for current satellite operators in Low Earth Orbit. The data (images) of the Earth Observation Satellites is being transmitted using various modulation schemes and frequencies. There exist all-in- one solutions (e.g. Omnisat) to frequency-convert, demodulate and process the received data in a single device, dedicated for this application. The goal of this thesis is to investigate and develop an alternative for this device, using a commercial hardware (Software-Defined-Radio) platform in combination with open-source software (e.g. GNUradio), and evaluate to what extend this novel system matches the performance of a dedicated all-in-one solution.