Artistic impression of FITSAT-1 signaling in Morse code

On December 12-13 FITSAT-1 will be using its optical LED beacon to flash a message in Morse Code over the USA and the British Isles/Europe which should be visible using binoculars.

The FITSAT-1 CubeSat was developed by students at the Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT) in Japan. As well as the optical LED experiment the satellite carries several amateur radio payloads: a CW beacon on 437.250 MHz, a telemetry beacon on 437.445 MHz and a high-speed data downlink on 5840.0 MHz.

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

The LEDs were successfully tested on November 26 and it had been planned to flash the LEDs on Christmas Eve, however, the FITSAT-1 website reports that there will be a Full Moon that night which would make the signals impossible to see. The plan is now to activate the LEDs on
– December 12, 6:14:30 GMT over the United States for 2 minutes
– December 13, 22:10:30 GMT over Europe for 2 minutes or possibly 4 minutes if tests on December 11 over Japan are successful.

Information on how to see the Morse code satellite signal can be found at http://www.satflare.com/track.php?q=fitsat#MAP

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

AMSAT-DL have released this information showing visibility from Bochum in Germany, using keplerian elements of day 342.23099187 :

2012 Dec 13 [Thu] FitSat-1 – Bochum

Range Rate
UTC Az El km km/s
———————————
2207 282.975 0.215 2255 -6.9048
2208 281.375 4.401 1842 -6.8538
2209 278.698 9.886 1434 -6.7099
2210 273.556 18.052 1041 -6.3217
2211 260.746 32.379 0692 -5.0820
2212 213.023 52.361 0492 -0.8819
2213 148.787 38.260 0612 4.3289
2214 130.898 21.281 0937 6.1087
2215 124.461 11.877 1322 6.6334
2216 121.284 5.839 1726 6.8210
2217 119.431 1.372 2138 6.8900
———————————-

FITSAT-1 Flight Model

Further information and pictures of FITSAT-1 and the other CubeSats deployed from the ISS on October 4, 2012 is at http://www.uk.amsat.org/?page_id=10967

First picture from FITSAT-1 on 5840.0 MHz http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=11151

FITSAT-1 received with 1/4 wave antenna and FUNcube Dongle SDR http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=10873

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