A real-time mission control desktop application built for the CanSat India competition. The system bridges hardware telemetry with an intuitive GUI — providing complete satellite oversight from launch to recovery.

The Context

CanSat is a competition where teams design, build, and launch a satellite the size of a soda can. The ground control station is the nerve center of the operation — everything the team sees, commands, and records during the mission flows through it.

What It Does

A live telemetry dashboard renders real-time altitude, pressure, and sensor readings through dynamic charts and custom gauge widgets. An integrated GPS mapping widget tracks the satellite's position as it updates. A mission control panel handles one-click command transmission for critical events like payload deployment, with instant feedback. All telemetry is automatically logged to timestamped CSV files for post-flight analysis using Pandas and Matplotlib.

Under the Hood

A dedicated serial handler runs on a background thread, continuously reading telemetry packets from ground station hardware without blocking the UI. PyQt5's signals and slots pattern keeps GUI updates thread-safe and the interface responsive under load — critical when mission data is streaming in real time.

Impact

Delivered a complete IoT application covering live monitoring, remote command execution, and post-flight analysis tools. The system's stability and reliability were directly tied to mission success.

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