Design of a Radio Telemetry System for Use by University Rocket Teams

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of a system developed to meet the needs of telemetry systems for use in university-designed sounding rockets. The telemetry and command system operates over a full-duplex 900 MHz link at altitudes up to 100 km, the typical max altitude achieved by university sounding rockets, using a lower data rate than the down-link for a reliable command up-link. As these missions become more prolific and with increasingly valuable payloads, without an increase in budget, there is a growing need for such data systems that are at the typical cost of hobbyist level rockets. This project is the development of a system that reduces mission risk by downloading health and sensor data in real-time, increases operator safety and redundancy by providing the ability to trigger an immediate abort option to save the vehicle, and improves system feedback through a software package that displays and analyzes the flight data, in real-time, to the operators at the ground station.