NASA’s CubeSat program helps students take part in space experiments.
Author Archives: m0xtd
STRaND-2 and OSCAR-5 in SatMagazine
The STRaND-2 nanosats feature in the June issue of the free publication SatMagazine.
These innovative satellites, being developed in the UK by the University of Surrey and SSTL, feature on pages 25 and 26 of the magazine
Additionally on page 71 there is a picture of the satellite OSCAR-5 that was built by radio amateurs at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Download the June 2012 SatMagazine at http://www.satmagazine.com/2012/SM_Jun2012.pdf
SatMagazine http://www.satmagazine.com/
STRaND-2 ‘Kinect’ Satellites Video http://www.uk.amsat.org/7851
Surrey Satellite to put Xbox parts in space http://www.uk.amsat.org/7771
‘Kinect’ STRaND-2 at UK Space Agency Conference http://www.uk.amsat.org/6795
ArduSat Open-Source Arduino-based Satellite
ArduSat is an open-source arduino-based CubeSat. It plans to have an extensive sensor-suite onboard that will allow users to upload their own code and run their own experiments.
Watch KickStarter ArduSat
Open Satellite Network https://sites.google.com/a/hackersinspace.net/www/
First Tent In Space
In May 2012, while the world’s eyes were on the Space X Dragon launch, another piece of history was made.
In the Scottish Highlands four intrepid Vangonauts attempted their first mission and managed to pitch a tent at 104,000ft (over three and a half times the height of Mt Everest).
Mission control was in the Scottish Highlands near Oban. The tent was launched in light winds, and initially headed South East, before catching the jetstream and heading North East.
The tent was tracked by GPS by the ground crew who were then able to plan a rendezvous with the campers post trip. The mission landed in wilderness near Loch Tay resulting in a 10km hike through snow, hail and bogs for the ground crew to rendezvous with the intrepid campers. It is hoped that in future Space Camping missions, less remote landings can be orchestrated for the convenience of the campers.
Watch First tent in Space – short version 3:25
Watch Vango Space Camping :: Whole Trip (30:23)
Stunning HD images show the curvature of the Earth high up in the stratosphere
Project AirBeam® “Space Camping” Technical Data:
Initial ascent rate: Approx 5.5 metres per second
Trip duration: 1hour 42 mins
Trip ground distance:
– By Air: 68.91 Kilometres
– By Road: 95.8 Kilometres
Trip peak altitude: 31.5 Kilometres
Trip monitoring: 2 x GPS trackers giving location updated every 4 minutes to mission control.
Ground pressure: 1020 millibar.
Destination pressure: 3-4 millibar.
Helium use: 8 cubic metres
Launch balloon diameter (ground level): 2.5 metres
Launch balloon diameter (peak altitude): 10+ metres
Descent rate:
– Stratospheric: Approx 70-80 metres per second
– Sub Tropopause: Approx 6 metres per second
Space Camping http://www.spacecamping.org/
Watch Venus Transit Online June 5-6
At 22:09 UT on June 5, 2012 the planet Venus will appear as a small, dark disk moving across the face of the Sun. The transit will finish at 04:49 UTC on June 6 (exact time depends on location of observer).
Clouds permiting, it may be visible to observers in the UK from dawn (about 03:46 UT in London).
This will be the last time the planet Venus will make the trek across the face of the sun as seen from Earth until the year 2117.
Note: Observing the Sun directly without appropriate protection can damage or destroy retinal cells, causing temporary or permanent blindness.
Clint Bradford K6LCS has posted a collection of URL’s where you should be able to watch the Venus transit online from sites around the world.
NASA (USA) http://venustransit.nasa.gov/2012/transit/
NASA Edge http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/nasaedge/index.html
University of Barcelona (from a telescope in Norway) https://gaia.am.ub.es/serviastro/www/html/venus2012/live/index.html
National Solar Observatory http://venustransit.nso.edu/live.html
Exploratorium (via the Mauna Loa Observatory) http://www.exploratorium.edu/venus/
NASA TV http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
Coca Cola Space Science Center (from Australia) http://www.ccssc.org/transit2012.html
Bareket observatory (Israel)
http://www.bareket-astro.com/live-astronomical-web-cast/live-free-venus-transit-webcast-6-june-2012.html
Mt. Lemmon Sky Center http://skycenter.arizona.edu/annoucement/live
Astronomers Without Borders (from Mt. Wilson, California)
http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/projects/transit-of-venus/live-webcast.html
The 2012 Transit of Venus using HAM Radio http://aprs.org/VenusTransit2012.html
Transit of Venus Special Event June 6, 2012
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2012/transit_of_venus_special_event.htm
Ultra-high Definition video recording of 2012 Venus Transit
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=145648241
HO-68 CW beacon with Funcube Dongle and Arrow antenna
Reception of the HO-68 (XW-1) satellite beacon using the Funcube Dongle receiver and an Arrow II hand-held yagi antenna. Quisk software defined radio receiver running on Ubuntu Linux 10.10 64bit.
I was located indoors pointing the Arrow out through the window (and Doppler tuning with left hand, hence the high pitch 😉
The peak was around 52 deg elevation, range 1400 km. The CW beacon transmitter is 200mW RF.
The Funcube Dongle is a USB stick SDR receiver for 64 MHz – 1.7 GHz by Howard Long G6LVB, see http://www.funcubedongle.com/
Video recorded by Alexandru Csete OZ9AEC
AMSAT-UK 
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