Motivation Letter

I am Dwi Cahyono, I am very interested in this MSc programme at UDE [University of

Duisburg Essen], actually for my major (electrical telecommunication engineering) and my
research now, that is about nanosatellite technology and I am focusing in Remote Sensing
Payload (RSPL) and communication, transmission that is the spearhead of our research team in
my satellite research laboratory in Telkom Institute of Technology right now. Fortuitously, I am
the leader of that laboratory. And every day I have to manage this team well. So I need a lot of
knowledges to share and give it to all of my member team. So I would like to learn all about the
satellite technology, communication technology, embedded technology and all the space
technology for supporting me to develop my research laboratory. This is a very good chance to
grab it all I hope. So I hope it can be my best experience to bail out the knowledges and share it
between me and your affiliation of MSc programme in UDE. I am sure it can be a powerful goal
to make a good culture in Electrical Telecommunication and Space technology as a satellite
vehicle.
As long as know that Germany is one of brief country in technology, and the culture and
also the environment that suitable with my passion as an Indonesian people. The strategic
position of the country for learning both the academic and cultures.
Now, I have finished my final project (assignment) also about nanosatellite, focusing in
On-Board Data Handling of Remote Sensing Payload. So I hope I can share it and get the
knowledges from this programme in UDE. It will be an amazing exchange knowledges I think.
And also I am doing my project research about the S-Band ground station in my campus to
support the nanosatellite that still I built with my team. As long as we know that these topics,
both Satellite and its Ground Station is a symbol of telecommunication engineering. So I would
like to bring it strongly with my passion in this field in the future.
Now, I also join to the INSPIRE (Indonesian Nano-Satellite Platform Initiative for Research
& Education) that as a consortium to study and discuss and also do the research to develop
nanosatellite (minisatellite technology). And this is my big chance to involve in a national project
and also institutional project that build my autonomy, confidence and skills.
In the end of my college, I have given a appreciation and this is the first time that
I could huge my honor from my Rector because of the charter of the outstanding graduate from
my faculty. That was an amazing moment, and I have to responsible of that.
So, it is very close relation between my current study, research and this program. I hope I can
join to this program fully.
- I have decided to take one part/ subsystem in a small satellite topic as my thesis in my
Master, because it is inline with my research in Bachelor degree, that is nanosatellite system.
And here is the hypothetical thesis that I will do. The IT Telkom Satellite Society (ISS) Research
Laboratory at Institut Teknologi Telkom, Bandung has been developing and building an Remote
Sensing Payload nanosatellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) since 2009. The first nanosatellite that is
still in designing and developing is ITT-Sat-1, and according to the ISSs roadmap it will be
launched in 2015. And it is also Indonesians first nanosatellite that built by student.
The ISS Research Laboratory (ISSRL) was established to handle as a facility where the
ITT-Sat 1 could be designed and develop and also for continuing the satellite and ground
segment research. Currently post graduate and lecturers engineers at Institut Teknolog Telkom
are developing nanosatellite focusing on Remote Sensing Payload application.
This nanosatellite missions have advantage that can be an earth observasion science and
education as well. ITT-Sat-1 consist of several subsystems and one of them is Remote Sensing
Payload (RSPL) subsystem. It consists of Camera modul, On-Board Data Handling/ Control Data
Handling, Memory, and Transmitter modul. Designing a new, small dimension and low power
camera payload system for the nanosatellite fits perfectly into the scenario.

- And this is the summary of my abstract thesis in Bachelor degree.
The electronics and materials technology over the past decade provide new breakthroughs in
the development of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) field one is on satellite
technology. Currently ,satellite has been getting development in miniaturizing dimension and
components to the level of 1 kg weight. Nanosatellite is a class of satellites less than 10 kg in
weight. One of the component subsystems that are in remote sensing payload nanosatellite
which is contained within OBC (On-Board Computer) and in the application called OBDH (On
Board Data Handling). The presence of the platform OBDH nanosatellite payload subsystem is
very important, because to serve the flow of data from the camera and the transmitter. In this
project, it will be designed and realized OBDH-based on FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array).
Because FPGA has many advantages over commonly used conventional microcontroller. In the
development of space technology implementation for FPGA resistant to radiation effects in a
parallel mechanism in the internal system that is ideal for future space applications, higher
computational capability, low power consumption, small hardware size, and many others.
FPGA-based OBDH in this thesis are designed to set the process and control bits data
input from the camera to the SDRAM and to the transmitter output from the SDRAM to be sent
to the Ground Segment. Components are required as input the output information in the form
of camera payload TCM8240MD, internal SDRAM FPGA board. Communication used between
the camera and FPGA with I2C bus protocol (Inter-IC). This FPGA will be encoded in VHDL
language. Software used in a VHDL design is WebPack XILINX ISE, ModelSim, XSTOOLs Utilities.
The execution and realization was be conducted in the supporters laboratory such as Digital
Techniques and Microprocessor and Interfacing Laboratory.
FPGA used is a Xilinx Spartan-200A XuLA with a maximum operating frequency of 384
MHz because of its small dimension and low power consumption, and digital camera 1.3
Megapixels TCM 8240MD with the OBDH dimension is 7.5 x 8.4 x 2.5 cm an
3
and the power is
513.178 mWatt and the mass total is 51.75 gram. Going forward, the algorithm is programmed
with VHDL language will be generated into the ASIC to strengthen and make it solid logic gates
in the VHDL language in future space technology.


Best regards,
Dwi Cahyono