JAXA H-IIA F23 Launch February 27, 2014 at1837 UT Credit NASA/Bill Ingalls
On Thursday, February 27 at 1837 UT a cluster of Japanese amateur radio satellites were launched from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center.
At 1948 UT Francisco Jimenez-Martin Sanchez EA1JMreceived the 437.325 CW (A1A) beacon from the ARTSAT1:INVADER CubeSat.
Also on the first pass at 1952 UT Jan van Gils PE0SATreceived
OPUSat
STARS-II (comprises Mother and Daughter satellites)
TelkyoSat-3
ShindaiSat-1
ARTSat1:INVADER
The amateur radio CubeSat LituanicaSAT-1, call sign LY5N, was developed by students and young engineers from Vilnius University in Lithuania and should be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, February 28 at 0730 UT and streamed live at http://m.ustream.tv/channel/live-iss-stream
The team ask radio amateurs and SWL’s to listen for the FM Morse code beacon on 437.275 MHz after deployment and submit reports (see Tracking below). They say there will be Mission emblem stickers with signed QSL cards and for the first 10 registered reports, LituanicaSAT-1 branded note books!
LituanicaSAT-1
The tiny satellite is just 10x10x10 cm with a mass of 1.090 kg yet it has a VGA camera and a 145/435 MHz FM voice transponder, designed and built by Lithuanian radio amateurs.
The prototype of the FM repeater has been operating in the home of its designer Žilvinas Batisa LY3H in Elektrėnai, Lithuania. Further information at http://ly3h.epalete.com/?p=303
The communications payload comprises:
• FM Morse Code Beacon 437.275 MHz LY5N
• FM Voice Repeater 145.950 MHz uplink (PL 67 Hz CTCSS) 435.180 MHz downlink
• AX.25 Packet Radio 145.850 MHz uplink 437.550 MHz downlink 9600 baud FSK, FM
LituanicaSAT-1 uses passive magnetic attitude control system consisting of permanent magnets that create a control torque and soft magnets that provide dampening torque using hysteresis effect. Following attitude sensors are implemented for attitude determination:
• PS-MPU-6000A MEMS motion sensor
• PS-MPU-9150A MEMS motion sensor
• L3GD20 MEMS three-axis digital output gyroscope
• HMC5883L three axes digital magnetometer
LituanicaSAT-1 Stack
There are two computers in LituanicaSAT-1: the flight computer based on ARM Cortex-M4F microcontroller and secondary (back-up) computer based on Arduino ATMega 2560 microcontroller. These two computers and their periphery are laid out on different sides of one shared PCB. The flight computer is the central control unit of the satellite responsible for maintaining the normal operating mode of the satellite, monitoring and control of energy resources, control of attitude determination sub-system and performance of telecommands received from the satellite ground station in Lithuania.
The LituanicaSAT-1 team developed the secondary flight computer based on the open source hardware and software project named Arduino. This computer will ensure limited, however safe functionality of the satellite in case of failure of the main onboard computer and will also take and record the first pictures made by Lithuanians from space as well as control the radio beacon of the satellite.
There are 4 monopole antennas on LituanicaSAT-1: three UHF antennas and one VHF antenna. Each antenna is made of approx. 0.2 mm thick and 5 mm wide spring steel measurement tape. In deployed configuration, all UHF antennas are pointed towards the Z+ body axis direction and VHF antenna is pointed toward –Z body axis.
Tracking
In the days after deployment LituanicaSAT-1 will be very close to the International Space Station (ISS). To determine when you’ll be able to hear the 437.275 MHz FM Morse code beacon look at the position of the ISS on either the ISS Fan Club website at http://issfanclub.com/ or the N2YO satellite tracking site at http://n2yo.com/ (tick the Draw footprint box).
Due to Doppler shift the beacon may appear to be +/- 10 kHz of the nominal frequency. Submit reception reports including small audio file or any other data online at http://www.kosmonautai.lt/en/data-submission/
Watch Jeffrey Manber of Nanoracks – LituanicaSAT-1 interview
The LituanicaSAT-1 mission is specially dedicated to honor the 80th Anniversary of the flight across the Atlantic by Lithuanian-American pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas. Therefore the satellite bears the name of the original aircraft used during this historic flight – “Lituanica”.
On July 15, 1933, Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York in their airplane Lituanica and flew across the Atlantic Ocean, covering a distance of 6,411 kilometers without landing, in 37 hours and 11 minutes. Tragically they crashed by the village of Kuhdamm, near Soldin, Germany just 650 km from their destination of Kaunas in Lithuania.
JAXA H-IIA F23 Launch February 27, 2014 at1837 UT Credit NASA/Bill Ingalls
Updated information on the JAXA H-IIA F23 launch from Mineo Wakita JE9PEL.
JAXA GPM Satellites Update
Launch Time: 18:37 UT, 27 Feb 2014
Launch Site: Tanegashima Space Center, Japan
Launch Live: http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html
The amateur radio CubeSat LitSat-1, call sign LY1LS, is planned to be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, February 28 at 0730 UT. It carries a 435/145 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW communications.
The LitSat-1 team have issued this statement:
Our country Lithuania is heading towards a historic moment – start of the first Lithuanian satellite in space. First ever Lithuanian Cubesat Litsat1 is due to be launched within couple of days only – on Feb 28 at 07:30 UT from the International Space Station (ISS).
We are very interested in getting the first data from our small satellite as soon as possible, therefore we would like to ask your help with that.
We will send special QSL cards for radio amateurs with first reports about received signals from our satellite. The 3 stations first received the signals from the LitSat1 satellite will receive QSL cards signed by the High level officials of the Lithuanian government.
Please send your SWL reports (screen snapshots) with received packet data of Litsat-1 beacon to Kaunas University of Technology Radio Club. Contact point E-mail: address: litsat@ktu.lt
Please find below the technical data for the reception of Litsat 1: Beacon/TLM down link 145.850 MHz Beacon RF packets are AX.25 UI frames https://www.tapr.org/pub_ax25.html Main parameters of the beacon frames are: TX baud rate 9600 bps (G3RUH), repetition period ~4.5s, beacon duration ~0.5 s, source call address – TNC, destination call address – LY1LS.
Digital data: Telemetry Digital communication with Litsat-1 is based on Helium 100 (HE-100) transceiver. The payload info field starts with the 2 header bytes “Bb”=0x4262 (Beacon broadcast), following with 2 bytes indicating further data field length (should be 0x0087), then the sat status telemetry structure (114 bytes) and finishing with the short text message (21 bytes).
For any other information you are very welcome to contact us: litsat@ktu.lt
A linear transponder will be activated later. Uplink 435.150 MHz LSB Downlink 145.950 MHz USB Bandwidth ±15 kHz from center CW beacon 435.1375 MHz (LY1LS/B) Normal mode – transponder, beacon OFF
73! Darius Kybartas LY3DA
Litsat-1 team Kaunas University of Technology Email: litsat@ktu.lt
LitSat-1 is very close to the International Space Station (ISS) so you can get a rough idea of when it will be in range of the UK based SUWS WebSDR by looking at the predictions for the ISS on the N2YO tracking website http://www.n2yo.com/
The two Lithuanian groups built the CubeSats in 2013 which was the 80th anniversary of the historic flight by Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas in the airplane Lituanica. On July 15, 1933, they took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York and flew across the Atlantic Ocean, covering a distance of 6,411 kilometers without landing, in 37 hours and 11 minutes. Tragically they crashed by the village of Kuhdamm, near Soldin, Germany just 650 km from their destination of Kaunas in Lithuania.
The amateur radio CubeSat ITF-1 (YUI) plans to launch from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center on Thursday, February 27 at 1837 UT.
Toshihiro Kameda JJ3GRX reports: The data reception App for our satellite ITF-1 (YUI) is now available at the Google Play Store. You can find it with keyword “TSUMUGI” or “ITF-1”. After deployment, the first path is right above western Europe from 7:20 pm on February 27 UT. It is before the path above Japan. We strongly want to obtain reception data. Report via the Web Form is greatly appreciated, but just e-mail “heard” would be very helpful.
The 1U CubeSat was built by students at the University of Tsukuba. The formal name ITF-1 comes from the initial letter of the university slogan “Imagine The Future”. The satellite also has a popular name YUI which means “bond” in Japanese, it came from the project’s concept‚ “Creating the Worldwide Human Community”.
Ayano Okamura ITF-1 Project Manager
ITF-1 has the callsign JQ1ZLO and the 437.525 MHz satellite beacon will send telemetry by a Morse Code audio tone on an FM transmitter running 300 milliwatts output.
The Project Manager is Ms. Ayano Okamura a fourth-year student of the College of Engineering Systems‚ School of Science and Engineering.
The ARTSAT1:INVADER CubeSat team have announced that QSL cards will be available for reception reports of the amateur radio satellite.
ARTSAT1:INVADER
INVADER will launch from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center on Thursday, February 27 at 1837 UT. It will be deployed from the launcher at 1916 UT, antenna deployment takes place at 1920 UT and then its CW (A1A) beacon on 437.325 MHz (+/- 10 kHz Doppler shift) should start transmitting.
The CubeSat carries a low-resolution camera, 1200 bps FM AX.25 Packet Radio and a FM Digitalker. These will operate on a downlink frequency of 437.200 MHz.
AMSAT-UK 
You must be logged in to post a comment.