Design and Implementation of a Remote, Server-Client-Based Telemetry Retrieval and Monitoring System
Mehran Sarkarati, Klaus Brieß, Hakan Kayal · SpaceOps 2006 Conference · 2006
Telemetry retrieval and monitoring is one of the basic functionalities of every satellite Electrical Ground Support Equipment, EGSE. There are hence a vast number of different tools and systems available for this purpose. Most of these systems have been, however, developed in the context of individual satellite projects or in some cases even a single payload. A limited number of multi-mission and more general purposed telemetry retrieval systems exist presently as an integrated part of major commercial EGSE systems, which are used at the professional satellite control centres. The use of these systems in a new satellite projects requires respectively certain adaptation of the system or the satellite hardware/software. Another lacking functionality of many telemetry retrieval systems is their local accessibility, where there is no or limited remote interface to the system through the internet. In this paper a low-cost, modular and flexible telemetry retrieval system with a server-client based architecture is presented. It allows the remote clients to login to the system through the internet, using conventional web-browsers and monitor the satellite telemetry data in real-time during a satellite pass. It also offers functionalities for off-line data analysing, graphical visualising and telemetry database administration through the web interface. The system has been developed at the German Aerospace Centre, DLR and the TU-Berlin and is being used for retrieving telemetry data of the DLR satellite BIRD at TUBerlin. The ESA Young Engineers Satellite, YES2 is another potential user of the system. The complete platform independency of the system and its pure object oriented and modular software architecture makes it a highly flexible and reusable telemetry retrieval and monitoring system. The objective of an easy adaptation and cross-mission reusability of the system has been the major design deriver and has lead to the development of a dedicated Application Programming Interface, API. Satellite engineers can use the introduced API to develop new modules and to extend the existing ones, in order to adapt the system to the requirements of a new satellite project.