Error-Correcting Codes for Reliable Communications in Microgravity Platforms

The PAANDA experiment was conceived to characterise the acceleration ambient of a rocket launched microgravity platform, specially the microgravity phase. The recorded data was transmitted to ground stations, leading to loss of telemetry information sent during the re-entry period. Traditionally, an error-correcting code for this channel consists of a block code with very large block size to protect against long periods of data loss. Instead, we propose the use of digital fountain codes along with conventional Reed-Solomon block codes to protect against long and short burst error periods, respectively. Aiming to use this approach for a second version of PAANDA to prevent data corruption, we propose a model for the communication channel based on information extracted from Cuma II’s telemetry data, and simulate the performance of our proposed error-correcting code under this channel model. Simulation results show that nearly all telemetry data can be recovered, including data from the re-entry period.