Author Archives: m0xtd

Feb 4 2012

Meet the teams: Robusta

Seven teams of university students were selected to fly their CubeSats on the maiden flight of ESA’s Vega launch vehicle. Here is an introduction to the French Robusta team.

University Université Montpellier 2
Endorsing professors Laurent Dusseau, Sylvie Jarrix, Jérome Boch, Jean Roch Vaillé, Gerard Gervois, Thierry Fiol, Fred Giamarchi, Julien Christine, Bernard Clotilde, Valérie Ponsa, Julien Averseng, Jean François Dubé , Jean Marc Gallière
Team Muriel Bernard, Amable Blain, Cyril Bonneau, Nabil Boureghda, Christelle Deneau, Stéphanie Dhombres, Adrien Doridan, Lucas, Pradier, Gauthier Gibert, Stéphanie Perez, Thomas Balard, Fabien Roig, Victor Gasia

 Robusta was initiated by the radiation effects group (RADIAC) at the Université Montpellier 2 (UM2) which, with 30 years of experience, is one of the world’s leading groups in its field. The CubeSat followed on from the group’s involvement in the development of a radiation effect payload on board the SACRED satellite.

Although SACRED was lost during launch in 2006, the group was aware that the different departments of UM2 possessed all of the knowledge necessary to build a small satellite. Their opportunity to become involved in a real hands-on project came in 2006, with the launch of the EXPRESSO (EXpérimentations et Projets Etudiants dans le domaine des SystèmeS Orbitaux et des ballons) student initiative by the French Space Agency, CNES.

A CubeSat team was put together by professors and students from the Montpellier Faculty of Science, the Polytech’s High School of Engineering, and the Institute of Technology at Nîmes, and ROBUSTA was one of three student projects selected under EXPRESSO. It was subsequently chosen by ESA as an educational payload on the maiden flight of the Vega launcher.

The objective of the mission is to measure the effects of exposing bipolar electronic components to prolonged low doses of ionising radiation. The Robusta payload will send back data on the degradation of key parameters of integrated circuits, which are commonly used in the aerospace industry. Each parameter will be measured every 12 hours, while measurements of the radiation dose will be received every 90 minutes, and temperature data every 6 minutes.

The data showing the performance of the electronic circuits will be sent to the ground for analysis and comparison with results obtained during ground tests developed by the UM2 radiation effects group. The monitoring of the radiation dose with the OSL radiation sensor, developed by UM2, will also provide valuable information on Earth’s radiation belts.

The experiment will provide valuable results not only for the group, but for the whole space radiation effects community. The harsh radiation environment that will be encountered during the satellite’s first months in orbit is particularly suitable for performing this kind of study.

The CubeSat experience

How did the team members deal with the experience of CubeSat selection, design, construction, testing and integration?

“During the project, older students took charge of the younger ones. Because there was a place for everyone, recruitment was possible by word of mouth.

“One of the most exciting challenges was the difficulty of having both students and professors from different sites, different schools and technical backgrounds working together on a project. It required strong project and documentation management, but, above all, a real team spirit was raised. Since we received technical and financial support from CNES, we benefited from the mentoring of CNES experts, who provided guidance at all stages of the project.”
Feb 4 2012

ARISS contact planned with technical college in Poland

On Saturday February 4, 2012 at approximately 12.41 UTC, which is 13.41 CEWT, an educational ARISS contact is planned with the Polytechnic school in Walbrzych, Poland. Amateur radio station W6SRJ, located in California, will operate the contact.

The Polytechnic school in Walbrzych has been established in 1946.
These days it is well known as Secondary Complex School “Energetyk”, with a population of over 900 students. They study electricity, electro-mechanics, electronics, technical graphics, telecommunications, IT and ITC techniques, advertising. The school is equipped for students with disabilities, education is on a very high-level and graduate students can easily find employment. It is the best technical school in Walbrzych.

Apart from teaching, the school offers many other activities.
The Shooting section exists since sixty years and takes leading positions in “The Silver Muskets” contest. Since three years, students take part in the Robotic Group, acquiring knowledge and having a lot of fun, building robots from scratch, according to their own ideas and knowledge. They were several times among the winners in prestigious competitions on an International level. There is also the school band “Underland”. The band is well-known in Walbrzych for they perform many concerts, in the city and around. In school is also active in “Energol TV” and they produce a newspaper “Alcatraz 2”.

The amateur radio club SP6PBA is located in the school. Besides HF communications with HAM operators all over the World, the club also transmits HAM TV in the 1.2 GHz band.

The ARISS contact will be conducted in English. It will be broadcast on EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) Conference servers, as well as on IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.

Students will ask as many of the following questions as time allows.
1. Lukasz (18): What is the difference between an astronaut and a cosmonaut?
2. Kacper (16): How does it feel to be weightless?
3. Karol (20): How long does it take to get accustomed to gravity after returning to Earth from the ISS?
4. Mateusz (20): Are large structures on the Earth such as the Chinese wall or the artificial islands in Dubai visible from the ISS? What else?
5. Piotr C. (20): Is eating in weightlessness difficult?

6. Dawid (18): How do you spend your free time on the station?
7. Sebastian (16): Has the crew got any health problems related to being in space?
8. Piotr J. (16): What kind of everyday tasks and what kind of experiments do you perform on the ISS?
9. Lukasz (18): How did it happen that you became an astronaut? Did you dream about it as a child?
10. Kacper (16): Do you keep in touch with your family when you are in space?

11. Karol(20): Are you provided with media such as phone, Internet, radio or TV?
12. Mateusz (20): Is the rubbish thrown out into space or brought back to Earth?
13. Piotr C. (20): Which planets of our solar system apart from Earth can you see through the window in Cupola module?
14. Dawid (18): Is it hard to take care of personal hygiene in the absence of gravity?
15. Sebastian (16): How long does the trip from lift-off until docking at the ISS last?
16. Piotr J. (16): How long does an astronaut’s mission training last?
17. Darek (55): How did you celebrate the beginning of 2012 on the station and which time zone did you have to adjust to?

ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.

ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers onboard the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters’ interest in science, technology and learning.

73

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF

ARISS Chairman

Feb 3 2012

Decoding MASAT-1

A new version of the telemetry decoding application for MASAT-1 is
available at

http://cubesat.bme.hu/en/foldi-allomas/kliens-szoftver

Feb 3 2012

UK Space Agency to send up first satellite

Artist impression of UKube-1

The UK Space Agency has announced plans to launch its first satellite – if it can find the right spaceship to catch a lift from.

The tiny UKube-1 will carry a variety of scientific experiments when it eventually gets off the ground later this year.

 

The project will see the agency take a leap into launching cubesats – a type of relatively cheap, mini-satellite for space research which has a volume of little more than one litre, a mass of around 1.3kg.

It also marks a significant departure for UKSA, formed less than a year ago from the British National Space Centre, which had focused on supplying European Space Agency with parts and expertise for a variety of missions. 

Head of communications Matt Goodman said: ‘We’re still in discussions with potential launch providers for UKube-1, and are working hard to find a launch option for the satellite.

‘Since cubesats tend to “piggy-back” on larger payloads during a launch, finding an opportunity with the right orbital configuration is not straightforward.’

Despite its relatively small budget, UKSA hopes to become a much bigger player in the industry, launching several more satellites in the years to come.

Agency head David Williams said: ‘The idea of cubesat is that we see it as a series with a launch every year or maybe two years allowing the sort of people that wouldn’t normally get access to space to run experiments in it.

‘We’d like to see this being an ongoing programme because it gives university groups, and even school groups and amateur groups, the opportunity to test fly equipment. It also gives industry the opportunity to test fly and to develop ideas on bits and pieces of electronics.’

UKSA is also involved in another ambitious project named Skylon, which is an ‘unpiloted, reusable spaceplane intended to provide inexpensive and reliable access to space’, according to the British firm Reaction Engines, which is hoping to build the new craft. 

The project got the green light from the European Space Agency in May last year. Although technologically possible, the project’s major stumbling block appears to be cost.

Mr Williams said: ‘We’re trying to work with [the team] to work out how they can raise the necessary finance and whether government should have any involvement in it in the future.

‘It’s going to be an expensive programme, several billion pounds over quite a long period, and the question is which industries wish to be involved, how UK should it be, how European should it be, should it be an international project?’ he added. ‘The idea of a true single-stage-to-orbit plane is very novel.’

Feb 3 2012

Khartoum Amateur Radio Satellite Ground Station

University of Khartoum Satellite Ground Station

University of Khartoum Satellite Ground Station

Students at the  University of Khartoum are undertaking a CubeSat project KN-SAT1 and Nader, ST2NH. has made a video of their recently completed ground station.

KN-SAT1 is the first CubeSat to be built in Sudan. Its objectives are:

  1. To give students at Sudanese Unversities a hands-on space project experience.
  2. To document the process and skills and forward it to more students and post graduated engineers.
  3. To promote space engineering and space science education at other Sudanese educational institutes.
  4. Building, testing and launching the cube satellite.
  5. Monitoring and tracking the cube satellite.
  6. Telecommand the cube satellite.
  7. Collecting the telemetry and the mission data for analysis and evaluation.

Watch UOK-Satellite Ground Station .wmv

KN-SAT1 http://cubesat.uofk.edu/

Sudanese Amateur Radio and SWL History http://www.st2nh.com/sudanamateurradioandswlhistory

ST2NH http://www.st2nh.com/

Feb 2 2012

Qtmm soundcard modem for decoding AFSK1200

 

Qtmm soundcard modem receiving APRS trafficQtmm is a simple AFSK1200 decoder that uses the computer’s sound card for input. It can be used to decode packet radio, APRS and telemetry from OSCAR and Cubesats.
Testing shows a good performance in monitoring the International space station APRS Beacon. More @ Qtmm soundcard modem for decoding AFSK1200

 

Telemetry reception from the AO-27 amateur radio satellite, which also uses AFSK.