ARISSat-1/KEDR deployment timeline driven by ISS schedules

ARISSat-1/KEDR deployment timeline driven by ISS schedules

ARISSat-1

ARISSat-1

ARISSat-1/KEDR Project Manager Gould Smith, WA4SXM provided the latest deployment information to the AMSAT News Service.

Gould said he and ARISS Hardware Engineer Lou McFadin, W5DID participated in a teleconference call this week with NASA to review the Roscosmos EVA procedures for the release of ARISSat-1/KEDR during Russian EVA 29.

Gould says the preparation procedures include the battery being charged and assembled into the satellite.
Also discussed were the procedures to remove the protective quilts from the solar cells and turning on the safety switches prior to deployment.

As to the date of deployment, Gould summarized, “The deployment date for ARISSat is still soft, a major factor is the shuttle launch. As of July 6 the EVA date is in early August, but the shuttle launch and docking are driving the timeline.

“During our discussion it was noted that the ARISSat/KEDR deployment is the first task of the EVA, so it will occur fairly soon after the EVA begins. Since we have no firm date or time for the EVA we cannot predict where the satellite will be heard first. We will let everyone know more as we know more.”

 

Amsat News, Gould Smith, WA4SXM

 

ARISSat-1 delayed until August?

ARISSat-1 delayed until August?

 

ARISSat-1

ARISSat-1

From the press office of Roscosmos:

Alexander Samokutiaev, flight engineer of the International Space Station’s expedition 28, informed about the planning for the upcoming Russian EVA in his blog in Roscosmos web.

According to Russian cosmonaut, the EVA is slated for August, pending the launch of the shuttle scheduled for July 8.

Alexander will work outside the ISS with his colleague Sergey Volkov. The cosmonauts are to perform several ISS RS refurbishing tasks, as well as to launch small satellite Kedr.

Russian cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station switched on small spacecraft Kedr on April 12, in order to commemorate the jubilee of Yury Gagarin’s mission.

Small spacecraft Kedr developed under the RadioSkaf experiment bears the name adopted by Yu.A. Gagarin call sign in his historical flight, namely Kedr. The satellite’s signal will be transmitted at radio amateur frequency of 145.95 MHz. Kedr has radio amateur call sign RS1S.

RadioSkaf is implemented in the framework of UNESCO’s student space education program.

Kedr will transmit different signals, images, including the talks of famous Russian scientist Kostantin Tsiolkovsky, rocket Chief Designer Sergey Korolev conversation with the first cosmonaut during his 108-min historical mission, and famous Gagarin’s “Go!” (Poekhali!), of course.

 

Satellite Az/El tracker video

Stefan HB9ZEM has released a video showing his prototype Amateur Radio satellite Azimuth/Elevation tracker.

The YouTube description reads:

In order to learn more about ham radio satellites, TCP/IP networking, stepper motor control, open-source Linux, and socket programming, I decided to build a simple prototype of a satellite Az/El tracker.

Watch Simple Az/El Ham Radio Satellite Tracker

PDF of RadCom article Getting Started on Amateur Radio Satellites
http://www.uk.amsat.org/archives/getting-started-on-amateur-radio-satellites

Online Satellite Pass Predictions
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/

The AMSAT-UK International Colloquium takes place July 30-31. The event is open to all and further information can be found at http://www.uk.amsat.org/colloquium-2011/