cansat india ground station
Real-time mission control desktop application for satellite telemetry, visualization, and command operations
Overview
Developed for the CanSat India competition, this ground control station provides comprehensive real-time monitoring, mission control, and post-flight analysis through a high-performance desktop interface. The system bridges hardware telemetry with an intuitive GUI for complete satellite oversight from launch to recovery.
Key Features
Live Telemetry Dashboard - Real-time visualization with dynamic charts for altitude and pressure, custom gauge widgets for instantaneous readings
GPS Tracking - Integrated mapping widget displaying live satellite position updates
Mission Control Panel - One-click command transmission for critical events like payload deployment with instant feedback
Data Logging & Analysis - Automated CSV logging with timestamps, pandas-powered data processing, and matplotlib visualizations for post-flight reports
Thread-Safe Architecture - Background serial communication with PyQt5 signals/slots for responsive, stable GUI updates
Tech Stack
Framework: Python, PyQt5 (desktop GUI)
Hardware Interface: PySerial (serial port communication)
Data Processing: Pandas (analysis), Matplotlib (visualization)
Architecture: Multi-threaded design with signal/slot event handling
Technical Implementation
Serial Handler Module - Background thread continuously monitoring telemetry packets from ground station hardware
Command Interface - Direct serial port write operations for real-time satellite control
Data Handler - Mission-specific CSV generation with automated timestamping for complete flight records
Native GUI - PyQt5 widgets for windows, buttons, live charts, and custom visualization components
Impact
Delivered a complete IoT application that provided mission-critical capabilities: live monitoring, remote command execution, and detailed analysis tools. The system's reliability and performance were essential to successful mission operations and comprehensive post-flight evaluation.
A showcase of real-time systems programming, hardware-software integration, and desktop application development.