Category Daily Updates

Mar 9 2014

LitSat-1 Transponder Test Successful

LitSat-1 CubeSat

LitSat-1 CubeSat

The 435/145 MHz SSB/CW linear transponder on the Lithuanian  amateur radio CubeSat LitSat-1, call sign LY1LS, was successfully tested on Sunday, March 9.

LitSat-1 was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, February 28 at 0730 UT by astronaut Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA.

Listen to the recording made by Mike Rupprecht DK3WN http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=42732

LitSat-1 Transponder - Mike Rupprecht DK3WN

LitSat-1 Transponder – Mike Rupprecht DK3WN

LitSat-1 frequencies:

Inverting linear transponder for SSB/CW communications
• Uplink 435.135-435.165 MHz
• Downlink 145.935-145.965 MHz

The team list a CW beacon but it appears the beacon was not active during the test.

AX.25 packet radio transceiver
• Uplink 435.550 MHz
• Downlink 145.850 MHz

LitSat-1 uses a modified version of the LE005-R2 CubeSat linear transponder developed by William Leijenaar PE1RAH http://www.leijenaarelectronics.nl/leijenaar_electronics_009.htm

Facebook LitSat-1 Lituanica80 https://www.facebook.com/Lituanica80

LitSat-1 Palydovas https://www.facebook.com/palydovas

President Congratulates Lithuanian Amateur Radio CubeSat Builders
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/01/12/president-congratulates-amateur-radio-cubesat-builders/

Mar 8 2014

Satellite TLE Object ID’s

TLEsNico Janssen PA0DLO reports the process of producing Object ID’s for newly launched satellites has changed recently.

Writing on the AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) he says:

It seems that the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) has changed some of their policies lately. After the launch of multiple small satellites late last year it took a long time to get them all identified. Apparently they don’t want to leave all the TBAs in their database for a long time, so now they use a different approach: they randomly assign the names of all satellites of a launch to the observed objects and then wait for reactions from the users of the satellites to see if the assignments are correct.

This is how e.g. the Cubesats, that recently were launched from the ISS, got ‘identified’ only a few days after their launch. So of course now we find that some identifications are wrong.

Doppler measurements clearly show that the following IDs are correct:
Object 39568, 1998-067EM, is LitSat 1
Object 39569, 1998-067EN, is LituanicaSat 1.

I am trying to get these corrected.

In the past the policy was to assign the ‘A’ object to the main payload of a launch. Secundary payloads, like Cubesats, would then get ‘B’, ‘C’, etc. So if the main payload initially was linked to the wrong TLE set, this required some swapping of TLE sets some time after the launch. Now they have decided to prevent this confusion by simply leaving the main payload assigned to another object than ‘A’ if required. Therefore the GPM satellite now is assigned to 2014-009C and this will not change anymore.

Satellite TLE Lottery Begins https://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/01/satellite-tle-lottery-begins/

Satellite Tracking https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/satellite-tracking/

Mar 8 2014

ISS HamTV Success

ISS HamTV screenshot by Stefan VE4NSA March 8, 2014

ISS HamTV screenshot by Stefan VE4NSA March 8, 2014

On Saturday, March 8 test transmissions were made on 2422.0 MHz using the HamTV equipment on the International Space Station (ISS).

BATC Webstream of ISS HamTV by Stefan VE4NSA March 8, 2014

BATC Webstream of ISS HamTV by Stefan VE4NSA March 8, 2014

The Digital TV signal was successfully received and web streamed to a global audience via the Britsh Amateur Television Club (BATC) server at http://batc.tv/ch_live.php?ch=4 There were four live web streams each from different receivers.

The HamTV transmitter is the culmination of over ten years work by dedicated volunteers to establish an amateur radio TV transmitter on the ISS. It uses patch antennas fixed on the Meteorite Debris Panels (MDP) protecting the hull of the ISS Columbus module. These antennas were installed while the Columbus module was being constructed. A fund-raising campaign took place during 2005-7 to raise over 65,000 Euros for the antennas. Individual radio amateurs from around the world donated generously as did several organisations including AMSAT-UK and the RSGB.

The main mission of HamTV is to perform contacts between the astronauts on the ISS and school students, not only by voice as now, but also by unidirectional video from the ISS to the ground.

Watch HamTV Commissioning received from IK1SLD Telebridge Station Casale Monferrato, Italy

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

Watch HAM TV commissioning, VLBI Control Room – ASI Matera, Italy – March 8, 2014

Read the HamTV overview by Gaston Bertels ON4WF http://tinyurl.com/HamTVoverview

Join the ISS HamTV Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HamTV

Webstream of the TV transmissions http://batc.tv/ch_live.php?ch=4

ARISS-EU HamTV Bulletins http://www.ariss-eu.org/

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

Front panel of the HamTV transmitter

Front panel of the HamTV transmitter

Mar 7 2014

‘Travel’ to Space for £40 / $70

VR2Space Payload Module

VR2Space Payload Module

Researchers from the Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey have launched a unique campaign that will enable the public to ‘travel’ to space for the cost of a pair of trainers.

VR2Space BalloonVirtual Ride to Space will use cutting-edge virtual technology and a specially designed spacecraft to deliver a three-dimensional, immersive experience, allowing everyone to see what astronauts experience on an ascent to space.

The experience will be created by capturing HD footage of space, via a weather balloon which will carry a cluster of twenty-four HD video cameras to a height of 20km – twice the height of a commercial airplane. During ascent these cameras will capture panoramic footage of the balloon’s journey to space.

Following the flight, specialised software will stitch this footage together to recreate a panoramic view of the space trip. The subsequent space ride will then be viewed using Oculus Rift, a state-of-the-art virtual reality, head-mounted display. The system is designed to deliver high definition 3D virtual environments that can be explored by the wearer, as if they are in space  themselves.

The £30,000 project will be funded by public contributions through the crowd-sourcing funding platform, Kickstarter.

Surrey Space Centre University of Surrey, Guildford

Surrey Space Centre
University of Surrey, Guildford

“Only 530 people have ever travelled to space. For most of us it’s a distant and very expensive dream but this project is about enabling the remaining 99.999992% to see the world like never before,” said lead researcher Dr Aaron Knoll from the University of Surrey.

“Ride to Space will give all aspiring astronauts the chance to be a virtual passenger, riding the balloon to space, and unlike other Galactic flights, it won’t cost the earth to be on board!”

The project team are also developing a smartphone application that will allow users to experience the journey using the phones’ built-in gyroscope and accelerometer data, as well as a computer programme that will allow users to experience space via their PCs.

Investment for Virtual Ride to Space is being sought via Kickstarter. Please visit the Virtual Ride to Space page for more information.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1592839372/virtual-ride-to-space-using-the-oculus-rift

Channel 5 Gadget Show
http://gadgetshow.channel5.com/gadget-show/gadget-news/travel-to-space-with-the-oculus-rift

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/VR2Space

The Bring Your Own Board BYOB CubeSat Workshop and the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium take place in Guildford, Surrey on July 25-27, see https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2014/

Mar 7 2014

ISS Ham Video now installed and ready for commissioning

Front panel of the HamTV transmitter

Front panel of the HamTV transmitter

The Ham Video transmitter was installed in the Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS) on March 6, 2014 at approximately 10.00 UT.

HamTV Antennas at ARISS Telebridge Station IK1SLD in Casale Monferrato, Italy

HamTV Antennas at ARISS Telebridge Station IK1SLD in Casale Monferrato, Italy

The transmitter was powered on briefly and all control LEDs were nominal. Ham Video is declared ready for Commissioning.
The first Commissioning step is planned March 8, 2014. Using call sign OR4ISS, crew will power on the Ham Video transmitter in configuration 1:

– ARISS antenna 41
– Frequency 2.422 GHz
– Symbol rate 1.3 Ms/s

The transmission will start shortly before the pass of the ISS over Western Europe at approximately 13.27 UT.

Acquisition of signal (AOS) at Matera ground station in south Italy will be at approximately 13.29 UT.

Matera will receive the Ham Video signals with 3 different receivers. The output of each receiver will be web streamed over BATC channels ISS1, ISS2 and ISS3.

The ARISS ground station IK1SLD, located in Northern Italy, will also receive the Ham Video signals and stream the video over BATC channel ISS4.

A basic amateur radio station that should be able to receive HamTV from ISS - Image AMSAT-Italia

A basic amateur radio station that should be able to receive HamTV from ISS – Image AMSAT-Italia

The BATC server is available at http://www.batc.tv/

On BATC you can do the following:

– select ISS
– click on one of the ISS channels
– click on Multi screen selector
– select the channels you wish to watch
– click on Watch.

When multiscreen appears, volume is turned down by default. Turn the volume up using the volume control slider below the image.

During the pass, different configurations will be tested with ARISS antenna 41. After the pass, the Ham Video transmitter will stay powered on in configuration 1 (see above) till the following Commissioning step, which is planned Sunday March 9, 2014 at approximately 12.40 UT.

International Space Station ISS 2011For about 24 hours, the DATV signal will be transmitted permanently, but the camera will be powered off. The reason is, that the camera is battery powered and no provisions are made for frequent battery replacement. This mode is called “blank” transmission.

Sunday March 9, the transmission will start shortly before the pass of the ISS over Western Europe at approximately 12.39 UT.
During Commissioning step 2, different configurations will again be tested, this time with ARISS antenna 43. The Matera ground station and IK1SLD will stream the video over the BATC server.

The plan is to resume blank transmission immediately after the pass over Matera and to continue permanent transmission for one week, till Sunday March 16, 2014. The frequency will remain 2.422 GHz, but antenna ARISS 43 will be used.

Reports on reception of blank transmissions are very welcome. Reports can be filed via this webpage:
http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_FSTV/submit.php

Participants using the Tutioune receiving software, developed by Jean Pierre Courjaud F6DZP, can record as well as stream detailed parameters of the received signal. Please see:
http://www.vivadatv.org/

Thank you for your participation

73,
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS Europe chair

Webstream of the TV transmissions http://batc.tv/ch_live.php?ch=4

ARISS-EU HamTV Bulletins http://www.ariss-eu.org/

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

Mar 6 2014

Two Close Calls For ZACUBE-1 CubeSat

ZACUBE-1, FUNcube-1 and HiNCube in the deployment pod - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

ZACUBE-1, FUNcube-1 and HiNCube in the deployment pod – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

The amateur radio ZACUBE-1 satellite, launched with FUNcube-1 on November 21, 2013, recently had two close encounters with space debris. The ZACUBE-1 team have issued this press release:

CPUT ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat

CPUT ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat

Week nine of the year will go down as quite an eventful week for ZACUBE-1 (TshepisoSat), literally dodging two bullets involving speeds in the kilometres per second range.

The first close approach notification arrived the morning of 25 February 2014 from the United States Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) through the The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) (A close approach notification is generated by the JSpOC to warn spacecraft operators when their spacecraft will come in close proximity to another object). The first order of business was the identification of the other object. In this case “SCC# 21422″. Our dance of death would be with the, now defunct, 2000 kg Russian built COSMOS 2151 launched in 1991. As ZACUBE-1 carries no propulsion system and with the COSMOS 2151 no longer functioning the only course of action was to closely monitor the situation.

TShepisosat ZACUBE-1 prior to being shipped to the Netherlands

TShepisosat ZACUBE-1 prior to being shipped to the Netherlands

It was determined that the close approach event would occur over the Antarctic and a search was started for possible ground stations that could listen for signals from ZACUBE-1 directly after the event. Help arrived in the form of our friends from the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, United States. The Cal Poly ground station would see ZACUBE-1 approximately 30 minutes after the event and be able to listen for its transmitted telemetry beacon signal. In preparation ZACUBE-1 would be tracked and checked on the last two passes over South Africa (22:50 SAST 26/02/2014 and 00:26 SAST 27/02/2014) a few hours before the event to ensure that everything was OK and then again by the Cal Poly station.

With everything checking out and all systems nominal on the last pass over South Africa all we could do was wait for news from California.

Great success! With Cal Poly confirming that ZACUBE-1 was alive and well. We were able to further confirm this on the first pass over South Africa.

ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat HF beacon antenna deployment unit - Image credit CPUT

ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat HF beacon antenna deployment unit – Image credit CPUT

This would have been enough excitement for the week, but soon after verifying that ZACUBE-1 was OK we received our second close approach notification! This time involving a piece of debris from a METEOR 2-5 satellite. The plan would be much the same, but with the event taking place over Brazil we tried to make contact with some stations in Brazil. Unfortunately nothing was heard over Brazil, but we received notification of ZACUBE-1′s signal from the University of Florida and again from the California Polytechnic State University.

We would like to thank everyone that helped out during this time, hopefully I did not leave anybody out. The folks from Cal Poly, University of Florida, the Brazilian radio amateurs that tried on very short notice and SANSA.

ZACUBE-1 carries a UHF beacon on 437.345 MHz and an HF beacon on 14099 kHz used to characterise the Superdarn antennas at the Antarctic which study the ionosphere.

ZACUBE-1 information
http://www.cput.ac.za/fsati
and
http://www.amsatsa.org.za/

First image captured by TshepisoSat (ZACUBE-1)
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/12/15/first-image-captured-by-tshepisosat-zacube-1/