Confronting or linking CSP and CCSDS? A view on how to operate small satellites today

Abstract

CubeL was launched early 2021 and is the first COTS cubesat which the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) of DLR is operating. It carries 3 of the most typical space-to-ground communication systems with its UHF transceiver, its S-band transceiver and its laser terminal. Main aim is to demonstrate the capabilities of the miniaturized laser terminal for high speed communications up to 100Mbps. The second aim of this cubesat is to test operations between the on-board S-band transceiver with its native CSP and GSOC’s multi-mission environment based on CCSDS and ECSS protocols and standards, e.g. the CCSDS space packet protocols. In this paper we will dive into this second aim. More specifically we will propose an evaluation of the 3 types of operations for small satellites: CCSDS and ECSS based operations, CSP based operations, and GSOC’s concept adapting CCSDS on CSP which is currently being used with CubeL. To do so, we will first describe the UHF and S-band communication systems both on ground and on-board. We will detail the CSP and CCSDS protocols. Then we will review DLR’s initial approach from 2020 described in “Integrating the Cubesat Space Protocol into GSOC’s Multi-Mission Environment“, from Lukas Grillmayer and Saskia Arnold and presented at SSC20. We will investigate how this integration of CubeL into GSOC’s multimission environment eventually happened and what are the pros and cons of this method, specifically for small satellites. Based on our experience gained with CubeL and with other missions supported by GSOC, we will end with a comparison of the operations using CSP to CCSDS adapters on both end with CSP-based UHF operations and with classical CCSDS S-band operations which are run otherwise at GSOC.