Yearly Archives: 2011

Aug 23 2011

SSTL successfully launches two further Earth Observation satellites

The latest Earth observation satellites from UK small satellite manufacturer Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) were successfully launched today at 07:12:20 UTC onboard a Dnepr rocket from Yasny in southern Russia. NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X will significantly boost African capabilities for natural resource management, as well as aid disaster relief through the Disaster Monitoring Constellation.

NigeriaSat-2-complete

NigeriaSat-2-complete

Science Minister David Willetts said: “The completion of this significant engineering project is testament to the success of the rapidly growing UK space industry. Not only are we producing technology and services that are in global demand but we are also helping more countries use satellite imagery to tackle important issues, including urban development and disaster relief.”

Continue reading →

Aug 22 2011

ARISSat in Emergency Mode

It has been reported that ARISSat-1 is in Emergency Mode in an attempt to conserve power.

10:24 UTC 22 August 2011

Aug 19 2011

Weather Sat Picture Received With FUNcube Dongle

Herbert DL4SDR used an AMSAT-UK FUNcube Dongle VHF/UHF software defined radio

NOAA 15 Received With FUNcube Dongle

to receive a weather satellite picture in the 136-138 MHz band. On the FUNcube Yahoo Group he writes:

Today [August 19]  I received  a picture  from NOAA 15  WX  satellite with  simple “stuff” FUNcube Dongle (FCD)  and a VHF/UHF Ground Plane Antenna  up 12 meters above  ground , 200 meters  above  sea level, 15 meter  coax cable WITHOUT  pre-amplifier !

Hardware:  FCDpro  with newest Firmware V18.i with PC  WinXP with onboard Graphics-Chip

Software: FCD-DF,  Doppler-DF,  SpectraVue, wxtoimage

Nice to  see what’s possible  with simple “stuff”  :))

Regards from Germany

Herbert DL4SDR

In a follow up email he said he had also used a Ground Plane Antenna in the attic as well as one outside to receive the picture. He says he was surprised to get this good  quality.

The FUNcube Dongle was developed as part of the educational outreach for AMSAT-UK FUNcube satellite project. Although it was designed  to enable school students to receive the satellite beacon the wide frequency coverage of 64 – 1700MHz has meant that it can be used for many other applications.

The AMSAT-UK FUNcude Dongle SDR is sold by Martin Lynch & Sons (ML&S) at
http://tinyurl.com/MartinLynchFCD

FUNcube Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FUNcube

Aug 17 2011

AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium Videos

Thanks to the hard work of volunteers from the British Amateur Television Club (BATC) 14 videos of the presentations given to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium held in Guildford during July 30-31, 2011 are now available online.

The Chair of BATC Trevor Brown G8CJS edited over 16 hours of video to produce the final versions.

You can watch the videos online at http://www.batc.tv/
Click on the ‘Film Archive’ icon
Select ‘AMSAT 2011’ from the Category drop down menu
Click ‘Select Category’
Select the video you wish to watch
Click on ‘Select Stream’
Click the play icon ‘>’ on the player
Clicking on the icon to the left of the player volume control will give you full screen display.

You can also download a video file to your PC by clicking on the ‘Click Here’ link under the player.

Some of the PowerPoint slides are also available Here

AMSAT-UK publishes a colour A4 newsletter, OSCAR News, that is full of Amateur Satellite information. The Spring OSCAR News can be seen athttp://www.uk.amsat.org/on_193_final.pdf
Join AMSAT-UK online at http://tinyurl.com/JoinAMSAT-UK/

 

Aug 17 2011

6U Canisterized Satellite Dispenser

A 6U Canisterized Satellite Dispenser was displayed at the recent Small Satellites conference that will allow larger CubeSats to be deployed.

Canisterized Satellite Dispensers (CSDs) are boxes that small payloads (CubeSats) are housed in during launch and dispensed from once in space. These dispensers reduce the risk that small secondary or tertiary payloads in the dispenser can damage the primary payload or be damaged by the primary.

Traditionally much smaller P-POD’s (Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer) have been used to deploy CubeSats. The 6U CSD standard allows CubeSats up to 12 x 24 x 36 cm weighing 12Kg to be deployed and is shown in a YouTube video.

The YouTube description reads:
A 6U Canisterized Satellite Dispenser is operated on two kinds of rideshare adapters. The CSD is designed to dispense 12 kg Cubesat type satellites. It was designed and built by PSC. It’s part of a family of cubesat dispensers we will qualify and flight validate.

 

Aug 12 2011

Bath TOPCAT Project

Talini holding a mockup of a cubesat (for testing antenna perfomance)

Talini holding a mockup of a cubesat (for testing antenna perfomance)

TOPCAT (TOPside ionosphere Computer Assisted Tomography) is a payload being developed at the University of Bath that will be launched on the UK’s first 3U CubeSat, UKube-1, next year.

Continue reading →