First picture from FITSAT-1 on 5840.0 MHz showing the solar panels on the ISS

When the FITSAT-1 CubeSat was deployed from the International Space Station on October 4 it took a picture using the on-board camera. On Friday, October 19 UT, the team successfully downloaded the picture using the high-speed 115.2 kbps data transmitter on 5840.0 MHz.

Since the beam of the 5840 MHz antenna always points to magnetic north the download was made on an orbit that passed to the south of the ground station.

The 5840.0 MHz signal was received while manually correcting for Doppler shift. This is quite an achievement since Doppler at these frequencies can make the signal shift by some 268 kHz during an 8 minute pass. Due to the difficulties of accurately hand-tuning there were many errors in the received data, however, the team were able to correct some of the errors by hand.

FITSAT-1 (aka NIWAKA) is a CubeSat, just 10*10*10cm, developed by students at the Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT). It has a CW beacon on 437.250 MHz and a data link on 437.445 MHz (both +/- 10 kHz Doppler). There is also an optical LED experiment that will flash Morse code and should be visible with the unaided eye.

FITSAT-1 5840.0 MHz downlink received with FUNcube Dongle http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=11100

FITSAT-1 Update http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=10701

FITSAT-1 website http://www.fit.ac.jp/~tanaka/fitsat.shtml

Further information and pictures of the CubeSats deployed from the ISS on October 4, 2012 is at http://www.uk.amsat.org/?page_id=10967

Image of the ISS taken by the FITSAT-1 CubeSat after deployment