Development of a GPS Receiver System for Satellite Launch Vehicles

A GPS receiver system utilized on satellite launch vehicles should operate normally under harsh environments as well as high-dynamic conditions. The GPS receiver system to use for range safety of KSLV(Korea Space Launch Vehicle)-I that is the first satellite launch vehicle developed by KARI(Korea Aerospace Research Institute) has been confirmed to survive under the environment of the launcher through extensive terrestrial tests including humidity, high and low temperatures, vacuum, sinusoidal and random vibrations, shocks, acceleration, EMI/EMC(Electromagnetic Interference/ Electromagnetic Compatibility), etc. Several performance tests have been also carried out in order to evaluate tracking capability and accuracy of the GPS receiver under high-dynamic conditions using a GPS signal simulator. Some lessons-learned during development of the GPS receiver system and its special characteristics compared with COTS(Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) GPS receiver systems are described in this paper.