Introduction to the GENSO network
It is well known that low Earth orbit satellites, or LEO, orbit the Earth. Hence, from a fixed position like our ground station, for a certain period of time we will be unable to receive data. Consequently, to track the satellite at all times, we need to know its orbit and should have several receiving stations along its path. GENSO has become a global network of ground stations which receive satellite data and retransmit it over the internet. Thus, once a satellite has been developed, there is no need to establish an elaborate network across the Earth; simply by joining the GENSO, you can access a worldwide reception network.
Current coverage of the network is as follows:
An international team of students has used Java to develop software to interconnect ground stations.
As mentioned, with a single ground station we would have around 20 minutes reception per day, which is the time the satellite will take to cross the local sky. Using GENSO increases reception time to several hours per day.
Once the ground station equipment has been installed, we will join the network.