Application of Small Satellites for Low-Cost Remote Data Collection Using LoRa Transmitters

Abstract

There has been tremendous advancement in the area of applicability of the small satellites owing to its compact size and capability to collect information from large and remotely located areas without being in a direct contact. The small satellites has greatly reduced the overall cost and development time of the satellite compared to the conventional satellites fulfilling similar missions, especially for remote data collection. However, remote data collection application has been insubstantial in the remote sensor nodes because of its limitations in standalone operability and power consumption leading to higher cost and sparse area coverage. Recent studies on telecommunications have led to the development of systems enabling low power and wide area coverage like LoRa, SigFox and Weightless. In this paper, we propose to develop a low power, low cost remote sensor node with LoRa transmitters which has standalone operating capability. The sensor nodes will be compact and will comprise of requirement based sensors, mainly focusing on the weather monitoring parameters like humidity and temperature, and water levels of disaster prone water bodies. They will have a simple design equipped with a self-sustaining power supply, LoRa transmitters, a processor and an antenna. The basic mechanism of data relay is to sense and transmit sensor data packets in real time so that a satellite passing over it can receive at least a packet per pass. The sensor nodes would be made robust to external factors before its placement to areas of its applicability like remote stations where there are no ground infrastructures for communication. Series of tests will be performed to confirm correct sensor data are being transmitted.