Status and Strategies for COSMIC-II Planning

Oct 10, 2008

Outline

Status of NSPO/NSC planning efforts Status of NOAA planning efforts Strategy to bring the COSMIC-II project together New Receiver Developments Missions of Opportunity

Status at NSPO• NSPO is currently working on three projects:

– FORMOSAT-5 (a FORMOSAT-2 follow-on, a remote sensing project)

– FORMOSAT-6 (a microsat project, payload to be defined)

– Development of a small launcher (designed for FORMOSAT-6)

• Currently NSPO does not have funding for COSMIC-II• NSPO is hoping to secure special funds from NSC for COSMIC-II• An Executive Board will meet in November and review all current

NSPO activities, and make recommendations to NSC. Reprogramming is necessary to make funds available for COSMIC-II

• NSPO would like U.S. to help their FORMOSAT-6 program, including payloads (prototype TriG?) and launcher. This may become a “risk reduction” project for COSMIC-II (if an agreement can be reached)

NSC

• Lou Lee’s (NSC Chairman) position:– Like to have a mission that represents significant advancement over

COSMIC (e.g., more satellites, better receiver, better antenna gain, lower latency, …etc)

– NSPO needs to contribute resources (e.g., funds and people) toward COSMIC-II (should not expect NSC to pay 100%)

– Needs to stress new sciences made possible with COSMIC-II (NSC is not responsible for operation)

– Needs to demonstrate 50-50 share between U.S. and Taiwan (Taiwan should not pay more than 50%)

– Needs to have significant societal impact for Taiwan (e.g., improve typhoon prediction) – key factor to get approval by Taiwan congress

Near Term Strategy

• What we need NSC/NSPO to do:– Authorize Nick Yen (and his team) to work with NOAA to develop a

preliminary program plan in October 2008.

– Establish a “COSMIC-II Planning Project” – allow NSPO and NOAA to work on a detailed program plan (for 1-2 years)

– Establish an oversight board to oversee COSMIC-II program development

– Establish a clear chain of commands for COSMIC-II planning (whom does Nick report to?)

– Identify “decision point” for moving forward with COSMIC-II (need to be synchronized with NOAA decision making)

– Identify science team to work with U.S. science team

Other Considerations for COSMIC-II Planning

Stick to name ‘COSMIC-II’ Target Launch for 2013

– Need to start development of TriG or similar payload

Develop appropriate contractual and legal vehicles (e.g., AIT-TECRO Agreements, TAAs)

Need to continue to promote COSMIC and its science applications Need to strengthen research, education and out reach Need to build connections with other international missions

Status of NOAA planning efforts

Submit a preliminary budget plan (for 2011 budget) for an RO mission by November 15, 2008 – Few details needed here, identify roles for various partners, develop funding

profile

DAVE?

New Receiver Developments

Pyxis by BRE– GPS/Galileo, 1X4 HF patch antenna?

– ROM cost $1M/unit?

– Some funding/schedule risk (2011 Cicero launch), low technical risk

TriG by JPL/BRE– GPS/Galileo/GLONASS(CDMA), large antenna w/ beem steering

– ROM cost, $7M+$1M/unit (no I&T, no data processing)

– 30-month effort, Need funding NOW

ROSA by Italian Space Agency– Few details known, OL tracking

– Launch 2008-9

GRAS by Saab/Erickson– High gain antenna, expensive, massive, power hungry

JAVAD/GFZ– Few details known

IGOR vs. IGOR+ vs. Pyxis

IGOR/IGOR+

Pyxis

Pyxis Specification Highlights

– 3 Frequencies Required: L1, L2 and L5• L5 is difficult to process w/ current direct sampling design

– 2-bit Sampler Desired: ~1dB increase in SNR• 2-bit RF samplers difficult to find and relatively power-hungry and large in

size

– Noise floor reduction• Dominated by antenna filter/LNA >30dB Gain, <0.5dB NF LNA

– Size reduction• Work to incorporate the current DIP/AMP/Sampler functionalities all within

the volume of a current DIP/AMP box

– Maintain or reduce power consumption of current• Including addition of higher-power LNA, OCXO, and new L5 signal

– Elimination of commercial grade components– Attitude Determination Capability– API

RF Front EndL1 / L2

JCA LNA's(x4)

Diplexer Modules(x4)

Amplifier Modules(x4)

RF Sampler Signal Prcocessing Hardware

JPLTurboRogue

ASICs (L1/L2)(x4)

48 Tracking Channels

Computing Platform

PPC603

8MB SDRAM

8MB Flash

RS422 Interface'BitGrabber' Xilinx

Downconverter Baseband Processing (x2 Redundant)

IGOR

RF Front EndL1 / L2

RF Sampler

Signal Prcocessing Hardware

XilinxXQR2V6000

FPGA

VHDL of x4TurboRogue

ASICs (L1/L2) & BitGrabber

48 Tracking Channels

Computing Platform

PPC603

8MB SDRAM

12MB Flash

RS422 Interface

Downconverter Baseband Processing (x2 Redundant)

IGOR +

Sample Clock

MTI OCXOSample Clock38.6556MHz

PECL-based Clock Dist.

Sample Clock

PECL-based Clock Dist. (x2)

Tellurian VC-TCXOSample Clock

38.656MHz (x2)

1-bit PECL Sampling Ckts. (x8)

RF Sampler

RF Front EndL1 / L2 / L5

MiteqLNA's(x4)

Signal Prcocessing Hardware

Xilinx FPGA orCustom ASIC

VHDL-based withGPS L1-L2-L5

andGalileo L1-E5a

Capability

96+ Tracking Channels

Computing Platform

BRE440 SoC

512MB DDR-DRAM

8MB+ CRAM / Flash

RS422 / Spacewire /Ethernet /Interface

Downconverter Baseband Processing

Pyxis

Sample Clock

MTI (???)OCXO

Sample Clock20.456 or

40.912MHz

RF to IFMixers / Amps

(x12)

LO Synthesizers(x3) or (x12)

RF Sampler

2-bit Comparator/FFSamplers (x12)

Custom RF-IC or Discrete Implementation

JCA LNA's(x4)

Diplexer Modules(x4)

Amplifier Modules(x4)

1-bit PECL Sampling Ckts. (x8)

Size Comparison

2-Channel Sampler

3.0” x 1.5” x 0.5”

Dual Channel (L1 and L2) Discrete

Modules with 1-bit Samplers:

Triple Channel (L1, L2, and L5) RFIC with Integrated 2-bit Samplers:

3.0” x 1.5” x 0.5”

0.35” x 0.35”, Plus supporting filters

2.0” x 1.25”

GNSS RF-IC

TriG GPS RO Receiver JPL/BRE submitted whitepaper/proposal (30-month) to NOAA Currently first choice in NOAA GPS RO plans GPS + Galileo + GLONASS Space hardened electronics (radiation tolerant CPU and RF down

converters) Tracks new signals:

– GPS L2C and L5– Galileo Open Signal– GLONASS’ CDMA Upgrade

4-6 antennas, with identical RF-hybrid chips Digital beam steering from 4-6 antennas Dedicated CPU for science processing BlackJack based real-time GNSS processing (reliable, flexible)

Missions of Opportunity“Poor Man’s ” Constellation

We should do this anyway for science - less useful for operations Pros

– Lowest cost (to US/NOAA)– Some science to be done– Demonstrate truly receiver, platform independence– Supplement COSMIC, METOP, COSMIC-II data

Cons– Not optimized for global observations– Not an operational system – Degradation compared to COSMIC– Multiple platforms, receivers, software challenges– Significant efforts required for coordination and management– Need a center to serve as data repository (UCAR?) and to ensure conformity

to uniform data format and processing software

Future RO MissionsMission Launch-

DurationDuration

(years)

GPS RO

Payload

# Soundings/day

(# SC)

Remarks

COSMIC 4/2006 ~5 IGOR, HF antennas 2500 (6) Real time-ops

METOP-A 5/2007 10 GRAS 600 Real time-ops

TerraSAR-X 7/2005 5 IGOR, HF antennas 400 RT?

Megha-Tropiques

2008-9 3 Italian ROSA 600 Equatorial, RT?

Ocean-Sat2 2008 5 Italian ROSA 300 Polar, Setting only, RT?

TanDEM-X 2009 Q2 IGOR 500

KOMPSAT-5 2009 Q2 IGOR+ 500 Limited Mem, RT?

AQUARIUS/SAC-D

5/2010 3 ROSA 600

METOP-B 2011 10 GRAS 600

CICERO 2011 5+ Pyxis/TriG 600 X 2 X (12/24)

Planned

COSMIC-II 2012 5+ Pyxis/TriG 600 X 2 X (12/24)

EQUARS 2012 IGOR+ 500

Iridium 2013 10 Pyxis/TriG 600 X 2 X 66 Proposal