Apr 12 2013

LituanicaSAT-1 with amateur radio FM transponder to deploy from ISS

LituanicaSAT-1

LituanicaSAT-1

Members of the Vilnius University Amateur Radio Club have been involved in the development of LituanicaSAT-1 which will be the first Lithuanian satellite. LituanicaSAT-1 is scheduled to be delivered to the  International Space Station (ISS) towards the end of 2013 and be deployed from the ISS by the JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The satellite will use low cost open-source software and hardware for primary and secondary flight computers that will control the payload consisting of an onboard VGA camera, GPS receiver, UHF CW beacon 100mW, 9k6 AX25 FSK telemetry TX 2 watts and FM Mode V/U transponder 150mW Voice Repeater.

The IARU coordinated frequencies are:
• FM Transponder Uplink 145.950 MHz Downlink 435.180 MHz
• AX25 Uplink 145.850 MHz AX25 Downlink 437.550 MHz
• CW Beacon 437.275 MHz

A news article estimated the cost of the project at 1.3 million LTL ($493,134) which is believed to include a value of 0.9 million LTL for around 18,000 hours of work by volunteers. An initial 170,000 LTL ($64,486) in cash was raised to commence development of the project with a further 260,000 LTL ($98,626) needed to complete it.

News article in Lithuanian dated March 30, 2013
http://mokslas.delfi.lt/mokslas/lietuva-kosmine-valstybe-vers-ne-valstybes-milijonai-o-studentu-entuziazmas.d?id=61025639

Kosmonautai LituanicaSAT-1 website in Google English http://tinyurl.com/KosmonautaiLituanicaSAT-1

Wiki in Google English http://tinyurl.com/WikiLituanicaSAT-1

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/LituanicaSAT1

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Lituanicasat1

Twitter Hash Tag #LituanicaSAT-1

Article – Nanosatellite Lituanica SAT-1 marks Lithuania’s first foray into space
http://www.15min.lt/en/article/culture-society/nanosatellite-lituanica-sat-1-marks-lithuania-s-first-foray-into-space-528-329403

The IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Status Quest-1 page reports that these CubeSats will also be deployed from the ISS along with LithuanicaSAT-1 – Quest-1 1U CubeSat, ArduSat-2 2U CubeSat, GOMSPACE-1 2U CubeSat, SkyCube 1U CubeSat, TaiwanSat 2U CubeSat, GOMEX-2 2U CubeSat, Cosmogia and Twenty Six other 3U CubeSats.

Lithuanian Amateur Radio Society (LRMD) in Google English http://tinyurl.com/LithuaniaLRMD