Daily Image
10-03-2010
Milestone for GALSEE-SMF
| Submitter: | H. van der Marel |
| Description: | On March, 1 the GALSEE-SMF project passed the milestone of the Test Review Board / Delivery Review Board (TRB/DRB). This means that when all actions coming from this review are finished, the facility is ready to be used. SMF stands for Signal-in-Space Monitoring Facility and will be used to perform in-depth analysis of the signals coming from the first 4 satellites of the Galileo constellation. The signals from the satellites are received with one of the WSRT telescopes. The MFFE of the telescope has been adapted to cope with the relatively strong (and circularly polarized) signals. A special antenna has been placed in the mirror of the telescope for performing accurate frequency dependent phase calibration of the MFFE and the rest of the receiver chain that is connected to this single dish. The signals from the telescope are routed to a specially built back-end in which the whole IF band of the MFFE can be analysed at once using a spectrum analyzer and a fast (400 MHz) ADC with storage. The whole SMF set-up has been designed in such a way that the telescope can participate normally in astronomical observations and that switching to and from Galileo observations can be remotely controlled. For the GALSEE-SMF project a consortium consisting of ASTRON, S&T, Delft University of Technology and TNO has a contract with Thales Alenia Space, Italy. It is expected that by the end of the year the first 2 Galileo satellites will be launched. |
| Copyright: | SMF-team |
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