Typically, successful projects go why -> what -> how.

That’s the arc I took in deciding to start a SatNOGS project, but since I’m publishing these notes, I’m going to address the ‘what’ first for those who have not heard about SatNOGS.

Satellite Networked Open Ground Stations

What

SatNOGS is an open source, DIY Satellite ground station and network. The ground stations that are part of the network can pick up all of the satellites up there, but the focus is on the ones in Low Earth Orbit.

Cubesats are going up in droves; many with research payloads. Much of that data is lost because there just aren’t many ground stations focusing on them, and many that do exist are very manual. SatNOGS is a automated, scalable solution.

Why

I was super excited about the cubesat movement, so I am really excited about having an opportunity to actually contribute.

How

Per the wiki, here’s how you get started…

  1. Join the community
  2. Deploy a ground station to development network
  3. Create an account on the network
  4. Test your dev setup
  5. Deploy to prod