PRN codes for KickSat Sprites released

Cornell KickSat Antenna

Zac Manchester KD2BHC has posted another update on the KickSat CubeSat which will carry 104 tiny Sprite satellites into a 325×315 km 51.5 degree inclination orbit. The launch will be broadcast live on NASA TV, which will also be streaming on Ustream.

UPDATE: The launch has been postponed, see http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/009/140327delay/ For latest date check http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/

SpaceX Falcon-9 CRS-3 Mission Patch

The primary launch date for the SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS 3 mission from the Kennedy Space Center will be March 31 at 0250 GMT. There is also a backup date of April 4 at 0140 GMT.

Zac says “Since a laptop can only decode one or two Sprite signals at a time, I’ve also been busy getting our radio upload page set up so that you can record a pass without having to decode it in real-time, upload the .wav file, and have all 104 Sprite signals decoded on our server with the results emailed back to you. This will also help our team collect as much data as possible from around the world. The page will be live before launch.”

All of the 104 Sprite satellites transmit on the same frequency. Each Sprite has a unique pair of Pseudo-Random Number (PRN) codes that it encodes its transmissions with, allowing a receiver to tell the Sprites apart (this is known as CDMA). A list of all Sprite PRN codes codes is available at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArAGbHISj5okdEhBbkZiWGxBSjNmcEs4ZkgwMmNsUEE&usp=sharing