Intern
Satellite Communication and Radar Systems

UWE-5 funded!

11.08.2023

We're happy to announce we've received the grant notification for our new satellite project UWE-5 today. The end goal of this project is to build, launch and operate two 3U CubeSat that investigate the integration of nanosatellites in 5G networks.

Black background, on the left side a the earth is depicted as visible from space, on the right side the white UWE-5 logo is shown
The "blue marble" by NASA next to the UWE-5 logo (Bild: "Blue Marble" on the left from NASA, public domain; source: https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/57723/the-blue-marble UWE-5 logo on the right: all rights reserved)

In the first phase of the project, an engeneering model will be designed and built, based on the previous UWE-4 mission. It will be extended by a communications payload with COTS transceiver chips and an SDR. Communication data up- and downlink will be performed in the Ka band to support higher data rates, extending the UHF link for telemetry and telecommand known from previous missions. Our group will focus on building and operating the software part of communication stack as well as the ground stations at JMU and their the integration with a 5G network.

We encourage all students to particiapte in the project by choosing related topics in our seminars or the Telecommunication Lab (see our Teaching site for more information). Additionally, plenty of topics for a Bachelor's or Master's Thesis are available and listed on our Thesis Topics page.

The full project title is "Collaborative project UWE-5: Student training project to investigate the integration of nanosatellites in 5G networks; subproject: satellite system and communication software" (Universität Würzburg's Experimentalsatellit-5, UWE-5). Funding is provided by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (funding indicator 50RU2307A); the funding is administerd by the German Space Agency at DLR. It is conducted together with Prof. Dr. Marco Schmidt at the Professorship for Embedded Systems and Sensors for Earth Observation (ESSEO) at JMU and Prof. Dr. Markus Gardill from the Chair of Electronic Systems and Sensors at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg.