Hardware & Making

An open-source guide to the galaxy: Our journey with Ariane 6

The 530 tons and 63 meter tall Ariane 6 rocket finally launched on July 9th 2024 carrying our open-source developed payloads – the SIDLOC experiment and the satellite Curium One – into space. SIDLOC tested a new, open, low-power standard for identifying and precisely locating spacecraft whilst our satellite Curium One established an open-source baseline for larger CubeSat systems and allowed us to test a bunch of new technologies. From sourcing a launch opportunity to the final integration onto the rocket at the spaceport in French Guiana we tell you about our biggest challenges and exceptional experiences of this adventure.
In this talk members of the Libre Space Foundation will take you on the journey of a rocket's payload: beginning with how the SIDLOC experiment and the satellite Curium One were developed, integrated and finally launched on the Ariane 6 maiden flight into space. 1. **SIDLOC** (Spacecraft Identification and Localization): Developed in collaboration with ESA, SIDLOC aims to improve space safety and mission success rate by establishing an open beaconing standard for spacecraft identification and localization. SIDLOC uses a low power beacon that utilizes the Spread Spectrum modulation and the cross-correlation properties of the Gold sequences, ensuring proper operation in extremely low SNR environments and identification of the transmitting space object. In addition, SIDLOC can provide localization and orbit determination, utilizing the Doppler frequency offset estimation mechanism that it implements. To achieve that, the open and crowd-sourced SatNOGS network is used, contributing to an independent source of orbital elements and spacecraft identifications, disrupting the existing model. The SIDLOC protocol has been implemented in such a way, so it is easy to integrate to a space object, regardless of its size, with minimal effort. 2. **Curium One**: The satellite Curium One is designed to establish an open-source framework for satellite systems. It features 15 newly designed open-hardware PCBs. From solar generators to the on board computer and high frequency communication boards everything was designed, tested and qualified by the community with the help of Planetary Transportation Systems. Its first signal acquisition was performed by the formerly world's largest radio telescope built in 1956 – the 25m diameter Dwingeloo Radio Observatory. We want to tell you about the development and implementation of the core technologies, the biggest challenges we faced during the missions, and the wild jungle experiences at the spaceport in Kourou. We aim to provide an overview of how open-source principles are being applied in space exploration and the benefits and problems of this approach within the space industry.

Additional information

Live Stream https://streaming.media.ccc.de/38c3/glitch
Type Talk
Language English

More sessions

12/27/24
Hardware & Making
DorotaC
Saal GLITCH
I'm not big-brained enough to use cameras on Linux, so I decided to write my own camera stack (based on a real story).
12/27/24
Hardware & Making
Saal 1
Reverse engineering the Wi-Fi peripheral of the ESP32 to build an open source Wi-Fi stack.
12/27/24
Hardware & Making
Sean "xobs" Cross
Saal GLITCH
Many developers know that the answer to "How do I debug this microcontroller" is either "JTAG" or "SWD". But what does that mean, exactly? How do you get from "Wiggling wires" to "Programming a chip" and "Halting on breakpoints"? This talk will cover how common debug protocols work starting from signals on physical wires, cover common mechanisms for managing embedded processors, and ending up at talking to various common microcontrollers.
12/27/24
Hardware & Making
Saal 1
The Iridium satellite (phone) network is evolving and so is our understanding of it. Hardware and software tools have improved massively since our last update at 32C3. New services have been discovered and analyzed. Let's dive into the technical details of having a lot of fun with listening to satellites.
12/27/24
Hardware & Making
Thorsten Hellert
Saal ZIGZAG
Recent breakthroughs in machine learning have dramatically heightened the demand for cutting-edge computing chips, driving advancements in semiconductor technologies. At the forefront of this progress is Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography—a transformative method in microchip fabrication that enables the creation of ultra-small, high-performance devices. However, the path from raw materials to these state-of-the-art chips navigates a complex global supply chain riddled with technical ...
12/27/24
Hardware & Making
giulioz
Saal GLITCH
Custom silicon chips are black boxes that hold many secrets, like internal ROMs, security features and audio DSP algorithms. How does one start reverse engineer them? Let's look at the basics of silicon reverse engineering, what gate array chips are, and how some tooling can generate Verilog code automatically from a die shot.
12/27/24
Hardware & Making
Andrew 'bunnie' Huang
Saal GLITCH
IRIS (Infra-Red, *in situ*) is a technique for non-destructively inspecting the construction of a select but common type of chip. It can improve visibility into our hardware and provide supporting evidence of its correct construction, without desoldering chips or expensive analytical gear. This talk covers the theory behind IRIS, as well as some embodiments of the technique. I will also frame the relevance of IRIS in the face of various threat scenarios. Time permitting, I’ll also show how you ...