Vibration testing of the Vietnamese PicoDragon CubeSat – Image Credit VNSC
Five new CubeSats being developed in Taiwan, Vietnam and the United States are hoping to fly during 2013.
Five new CubeSats hope for 2013 launch
Monthly Archives: February 2013
AMSAT-UK to provide Amateur Radio payload for ESEO satellite
The ESEO spacecraft Copyright ALMASpace – ESA
AMSAT-UK will be providing a 1260/145 MHz FM transponder and a 145 MHz BPSK telemetry beacon for the European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO). This is the third mission within the European Space Agency’s Education Satellite Programme.
The satellite, which has a mass of 40 kg and measures 33x33x63 cm, is planned to launch in 2015-16 into a low Earth orbit.
Nine European universities will be working with the prime contractor ALMASpace, Italy, on the mission. Cranfield University in Bedfordshire will be supplying a small sail that will be deployed to demonstrate the de-orbiting of spacecraft at the end of the mission.
The primary purpose of the AMSAT-UK payload is to provide a downlink telemetry that can be easily received by schools and colleges for educational outreach purposes. The data will be displayed in an attractive format and provide stimulation and encouragement for students to become interested in all STEM subjects in a unique way.
The target audience is primarily students at both primary and secondary levels and the project includes the development of a simple and cheap “ground station” operating on VHF frequencies in the Amateur Satellite Service. This station is an omni-directional antenna feeding a FUNcube DonglePRO+ SDR receiver which will receive the signals direct from the satellite and transfer the data to specially developed graphical software running on any Windows laptop.
AMSAT-UK’s Amateur Radio CubeSat FUNcube-1 on Korean TV
Arirang, a TV station in Korea, has broadcast an English language TV news item about CubeSats that features a brief clip of the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-1 CubeSat.
FUNcube-1 is planned to launch in 2013 and will provide an amateur radio 435/145 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW communications and a 1200 bps BPSK beacon for educational outreach.
A shot of the FUNcube-1 engineering model stack with an antenna deployment simulator attached can be seen 5 seconds into this video.
AMSAT-UK's Amateur Radio CubeSat FUNcube-1 on Korean TV
Arirang, a TV station in Korea, has broadcast an English language TV news item about CubeSats that features a brief clip of the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-1 CubeSat.
FUNcube-1 is planned to launch in 2013 and will provide an amateur radio 435/145 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW communications and a 1200 bps BPSK beacon for educational outreach.
A shot of the FUNcube-1 engineering model stack with an antenna deployment simulator attached can be seen 5 seconds into this video.
UKube-1 CubeSat Payload Animation
Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit – Credit Clyde Space
This video shows the UK Space Agency’s first CubeSat UKube-1 which is being built by Clyde Space. It is slated to launch in the 1st quarter of 2013 on a Soyuz-2 along with TechDemoSat-1.
UKube-1 will carry a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube boards to provide an amateur radio 435/145 MHz linear transponder and a 1200 bps BPSK beacon for educational outreach.
On Saturday, January 26, UKube-1 was at Selex Edinburgh for vibration testing. This test was to simulate the vibration seen during launch to verify the build quality. In the space game this is called giving the spacecraft a ‘shake’.
UK STRaND-1 CubeSat Video
Dr Chris Bridges and STRaND hardware
In this video Surrey Space Centre’s Dr. Peter Shaw talks us through the anatomy of the highly advanced UK CubeSat STRaND-1.
The innovative amateur radio STRaND-1 CubeSat aims to carry a NEXUS Android Smartphone into space to demonstrate the feasibility of using cheap Smartphone electronics to control a spacecraft.
A software-based speech synthesiser will be included to pay homage to the UOSAT family of satellites (OSCAR-9 and OSCAR-11) that were launched in the 1980′s.
STRaND-1 will carry an amateur radio payload with an AX.25 packet radio downlink on 437 MHz using data rates of 9k6 or 19k2 bps.
AMSAT-UK 
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