Monthly Archives: May 2013

May 19 2013

AMSAT Fox-1 Ham Radio CubeSat Announcement

Fox-1 CubeSat at the Dayton Hamvention - Image Credit ARRL

AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention – Image Credit ARRL

NASA announced on May 13, 2013 that AMSAT’s Fox-1 amateur radio spacecraft has been assigned for launch in November 2014 on the ELaNa XII mission. The expected orbit is 470 x 780 km at 64 degrees inclination. This orbit has a lifetime of about 11 years.

AMSAT Vice President Engineering, Tony Monteiro, AA2TX, reported that the software development team successfully brought up the Fox-1 system software on the Internal Housekeeping Unit (IHU). The IHU is the brains of the Fox-1 satellite and it has a 32-bit, STM32L microprocessor. The operating IHU card was shown in the AMSAT Engineering booth at the Dayton Hamvention.

AMSAT FOXThe Fox-1 Engineering Team will deliver the satellite for integration with the launch vehicle during May, 2014 with the launch scheduled for November, 2014. Tony commented, “While this is later than we had hoped, it is well within the normal variance of ELaNa launch dates and the extra time will be most welcome for additional satellite testing. This is very exciting news and really puts the focus on finishing the satellite and ground station software development.”

President Barry Baines says, “AMSAT’s focus on STEM education and development of a CubeSat platform capable of flying a science mission with a reliable communications link resulted in the selection of Fox-1 in the third round and RadFxSat (Fox-1B) in the fourth round of NASA’s Cubesat Launch Initiative.”

All Fox CubeSats are designed to host advanced science payloads to support future science missions that help us to continue qualify for NASA ELaNa (free) launches. The Phase 1 Fox satellites are 1-Unit CubeSats. They each include an analog FM repeater that will allow simple ground stations using an HT and an “arrow” type antenna to make contacts using the satellite. This was the mode made so popular by AO-51. The Phase 1 CubeSats also have the capability of operating in a high-speed digital mode for data communications. Phase 2 Fox satellites will include software-defined-transponders (SDX) like the one tested on ARISSat-1. These will be able to operate in a wide variety of analog and digital communications modes including linear transponders. Since this requires more power for reliable operation, these will probably all be 3-Unit CubeSats.

Source: AMSAT News Service (ANS) http://ww2.amsat.org/?page_id=443

A 1U CubeSat, Fox-1a will serve as a communications relay for radio amateurs worldwide via the onboard FM repeater system. Fox-1a will also carry an experiment consisting of a 3-axis MEMs gyro developed by Penn State University. The communications and experiment missions will run concurrently. An uplink on 435.180 MHz for FM voice and a downlink on 145.980 MHz with FM voice and an optional sub audible FSK digital carrier channel has been coordinated. Fox-1a will employ passive magnetic stabilization.

For more information see http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2012/2012_Symposium_Fox_Overview.pdf

Fox-1a is planning to launch from Vandenburg during 2014 on the NASA ElanaXII mission with ARC1, BisonSat, Lightsail and R2S(NEO)

AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

May 18 2013

2013 UK Space Conference Glasgow July 16-17

UK-Space-Conference-Logo-2013The 2013 UK Space Conference, which takes place July 16-17 in Glasgow, will focus on realising the UK’s ambitions in space – including making a global impact with science and research, contributing to the UK’s economic growth by developing new commercial applications and businesses and developing the interactions between these activities.

Further details at http://www.intellectuk.org/uk-space-2013-home

Interested in speaking at the UK Space Conference 2013? Soapbox slots available!
http://www.intellectuk.org/speaker-submission

Also taking place the same week is the free CubeSat Workshop at the Surrey Space Centre, Guildford on Friday, July 19 and the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium on Saturday/Sunday, July 20-21.

May 15 2013

MAREA: Ham Radio Robotics

MAREA amateur radio robot - Image credit ARRL

MAREA amateur radio robot – Image credit ARRL

An ARRL article describes the Mars Lander Amateur Radio Robotics Exploration Activity.

NASA has been doing some exciting explorations of Mars with robots, currently Opportunity and Curiosity, which are maneuvered on the Martian surface by remote control.  

These robots collect and analyze soil samples and relay the results of these distant experiments back to Earth. While students can learn about these experiments in newspapers, scientific journals, on the Internet or TV, wouldn’t a more active approach provide a more engaging learning experience? Why not let students experience the same thrills as the NASA scientists and engineers through a simulation that they conduct in their own classrooms?

The basic concept of MAREA uses robotic movement commands that are attached in the text portion of an Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) packet transmission. The APRS packet with the attached commands is sent from a “mission control” school via the terrestrial APRS network or, when possible, even via the Amateur Radio station on the passing International Space Station (ISS), to a “ground station” school. At the ground station school the command packet is received and the command data is linked by UHF radio to the “Mars” robot for execution.

The MAREA system components consist of:
• the typical 2 meter packet capable ham radio transceiver (or receiver if reception only is desired)
• a computer running a free APRS packet display program, sound card TNC (Terminal Node Controller) and serial loopback software packages
• UHF data link transceivers
• an instructional robot

Read the full ARRL article at http://www.arrl.org/marea-ham-radio-robotics

May 14 2013

Fox-1 has a Launch Date!

AMSAT FOX

AMSAT FOX

NASA announced Monday that AMSAT’s Fox-1 FM transponder spacecraft has been assigned a launch in 2014. For details on the launch vehicle, targeted launch date, orbit specifics, and more, please attend the AMSAT Forum and visit the AMSAT booth at the Dayton Hamvention this weekend.  Watch http://www.amsat.org/ and the AMSAT News Service for more details to follow as they become available.

AMSAT’s Fox-1 CubeSat aims to provide these features:

• Fox-1 is designed to operate in sunlight without batteries once the battery system fails. This applies lessons learned from AO-51 and ARISSat-1 operations.

• In case of IHU failure Fox-1 aims to continue to operate its FM repeater in a basic, ‘zombie sat’ mode, so that the repeater remains on-the-air.

• Fox-1 is designed as the immediate replacement for AO-51. Its U/V (Mode B) FM transponder will make it even easier to work with modest equipment.

• From the ground user’s perspective, the same FM amateur radio equipment used for AO-51 may be used for Fox-1.

May 12 2013

Frequencies announced for HamTV from the International Space Station

Basic amateur radio station which should receive HamVideo from the ISS - Image AMSAT-Italia

Basic amateur radio station which should receive HamVideo from the ISS – Image AMSAT-Italia

Frequencies have been announced for the new Ham Radio Digital TV transmitter that will send video from the ISS in the amateur radio 2400 MHz band.

The main mission of HamTV is to perform school contacts between the astronauts onboard ISS and the scholarship, not only by voice, but also by unidirectional video from the ISS to the ground within the ARISS program.

In addition to the existing VHF radio amateur station, ISS will host a S-Band video transmitting station. This new equipment can broadcast images from the ISS during the school contacts or other pre-recorded video images up to 24 hours a day to allow ground stations tuning.

It is planned to transmit DVB-S signals on 2.4GHz at either 1.3Msps or 2.3Msps with 10 watts of RF from the ISS Columbus module.

The IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel have announced frequencies of 2422.0 MHz and 2437.0 MHz.

HamVideo is the name of the onboard DATV S-band transmitter. HamTV is the name of the complete system, comprising DATV downlink and VHF voice uplink. Kaiser Italia SRL was the prime-contractor for the design and development of the flight and ground segment http://www.kayser.it/index.php/exploration-2/ham-tv

It is understood that the HamTV equipment will be carried to the ISS on the Japanese HTV-4 spacecraft currently planned for a launch on August 4.

HamTV overview paper http://www.ariss-eu.org/Ham%20TV.pdf

HamTV on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Hamtvproject

More information from AMSAT-Italia at http://www.amsat.it/Amsat-Italia_HamTV_brochure.pdf

Link Budget http://www.amsat.it/Amsat-Italia_HamTV.pdf

AMSAT-Italia in Google English http://tinyurl.com/AMSAT-Italia

ARISS Antennas Installed on Columbus http://www.ariss-eu.org/columbus.htm

May 12 2013

British Interplanetary Society President to speak at AMSAT-UK Space Colloquium

Holiday Inn Guildford GU2 7XZ

Holiday Inn Guildford GU2 7XZ

The 2013 AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium will start late afternoon on Friday, July 19 and will run through until the afternoon on Sunday, July 21 at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ, UK.

It will be preceded by an exciting “Hands-on” CubeSat Workshop which will take place at the nearby University of Surrey on the Friday and this will be followed, at the hotel, by the usual Colloquium “Beginners Session” in the late afternoon.

A number of keynote presentations have already been arranged for the Colloquium. These include Alistair Scott, the President of the British Interplanetary Society. The BIS has, over many decades, developed ideas and concepts about the future of space travel and both Patrick Moore and Arthur C Clarke were members. Alistair has had many years experience working in the space industry and will be reviewing the future possibilities for ventures into space both small and large. The BIS is presently developing one of the Sprites for the Kicksat mission and Andrew Vaudin will be presenting a paper about this and also providing a demonstration.

STRaND-1 Engineering Model and Cleanroom SSC

STRaND-1 Engineering Model and Cleanroom SSC

It is anticipated that both the FUNcube-1 and FUNcube-2 missions will be launched later this year and the FUNcube team will be on hand to talk about the missions and the planned educational outreach. A full demonstration of the Engineering Model, which has been performing flawlessly for almost a year, will also be provided.

On the Sunday, the General Manager of the RSGB, Graham Coomber, G0NBI will be talking about the Society’s vision of the future of amateur radio and how amateur satellites can play a major part in helping to secure that future.

We will also have updates on a number of the other current amateur satellite projects including HAMtv from the ISS, spectrum matters, operating methods, new products etc.

FUNcube-1 flight model - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 flight model – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

There are still a few slots available for additional speakers, so if you would like to make a presentation, please contact Dave Johnson G4DPZ e-mail: dave at g4dpz dot me dot uk as soon as possible.

The AMSAT-UK organising committee looks forward to welcoming both regular attendees and newcomers – you can be assured of a warm welcome and an exciting weekend.

The event is open to all, full details of the accommodation, travel and booking arrangements are at
https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2013/

Details of the free “Hands On” CubeSat Workshop are at
https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/cubesat-workshop-2013/