| Name: | Tanneeru Venkateswara Rao |
| Affiliation: | Balloon Facility of TIFR |
| Conference ID : | ASI2022_450 |
| Title : | An experimental investigation of dual telemetry for balloon-borne experiments |
| Authors : | Tanneeru Venkateswara Rao, Santosh Kisan Koli, Buduru Suneel Kumar, and Devendra K Ojha |
| Abstract Type: | Poster |
| Abstract Category : | Instrumentation and Techniques |
| Abstract : | Scientific ballooning is a platform for conducting scientific experiments and research in astronomy, atmospheric sciences and astrobiology. On-board housekeeping data and experimental science data are time division multiplexed (TDM) in the encoder and transmitted to the ground station over telemetry radio frequency (2259 MHz). To overcome the limitations of time division multiplexing in the telemetry encoder, in the present work, we investigated the possible configurations of transmission and reception of housekeeping data and experimental science data over two different telemetry radio frequencies (2259 MHz and 2281.225 MHz). Bench test, long duration test, and cold soak tests were conducted with the configuration of housekeeping data transmission on 2259 MHz carrier frequency and experimental science data transmission over 2281.225 MHz carrier frequency. The proposed configuration was tested in one of the balloon flights (Flight No. 498) conducted from the balloon facility of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Hyderabad, India. The shortcomings observed during the course of balloon flight (Flight No. 498) were identified, addressed and then successfully tested the proposed configuration in the Engineering Test (Flight No. T-500) balloon flight. The telemetry data reception configurations using 3.7 meter and 1.2 meter dish antennas were explored to receive the data with a good line of sight gain margins. It is concluded that the configuration of telemetry data reception using 3.7 meter dish antenna with a splitter results a gain margin of 3dB for the proposed configuration. Ground test results and balloon flight test results show that the proposed configuration can be implemented in the balloon flights to transmit the housekeeping data and experimental science data on two different carrier frequencies. |