Jun 4 2013

AAUSAT3 CubeSat – The First 100 Days

AAUSAT3 Flight Model and Engineering Model - Image credit Aalborg University

AAUSAT3 Flight Model and Engineering Model – Image credit Aalborg University

AAUSAT3 was launched February 25, 2013 on PSLV C20 and on June 5, 2013 14:37 CET will have been in orbit for 100 days.

The 1U CubeSat was developed and constructed by students from Department of Electronic Systems at Aalborg University Denmark, as a testbed for a pair of 161 MHz band AIS receivers concentrating on the area around Greenland in cooperation with the Danish Maritime Authority. The IARU Amateur Radio coordinated frequency is 437.425 MHz and the radio link uses Viterbi and Reed Solomon encoding.

On the evening af June 5, when AAUSAT3 passes the AAU ground station, with an AOS at 19:02 (CEST), the satellite will have been around the earth 1434 times, equal to 64.5 million km with an average speed of around 7.5 km/s in an altitude of 800 km – and weights only 800 gram.

In that period the main payload – an in-house developed SDR AIS receiver – has received more than 700.000 AIS messages.

The team have released a report of the first 100 days which also explains the two crises that occurred. Read the report at http://www.space.aau.dk/aausat3/index.php?n=Main.First100Days

AAUSAT3 http://www.space.aau.dk/aausat3/

AAUSAT4 has been pre-qualified for an ESA Education CubeSat mission together with five other CubeSats http://www.space.aau.dk/aausat4/index.php?n=Main.AAUSAT4Home

Automatic Identification System (AIS) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System

Jun 3 2013

AMSAT Field Day 2013

Saudisat SO-50

Saudisat SO-50

The AMSAT-NA site reports on satellite activity for this years ARRL Field Day which takes place June 22-23.

Every year AMSAT promotes a satellite version of Field Day during the ARRL annual operating event which is held on the 4th weekend in June. This year Field Day will take place from 1800 UTC on Saturday June 22, 2013 through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 23, 2013.

SaudiSat-Oscar-50 will be the only operational FM transponder satellite this year. If you are considering only FM voice operating for your AMSAT Field Day focus the single uplink/downlink channel will be extremely challenging. As in prior years, this intense congestion on FM LEO satellites drives the limitation in the rules allowing their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satellite. This includes the International Space Station. You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is operating Voice. You will also be allowed one digital QSO with the ISS or any other digital, non-store-and-forward, packet satellite (if operational).

If you have worked the satellites on Field Day in recent years, you may have noticed a lot of good contacts can be made on the linear transponder satellites including VO-52, FO-29, and AO-7. During Field Day the transponders come alive like 20 meters on a weekend. The transponders on these satellites will support multiple simultaneous SSB or CW contacts.

The AMSAT Field Day 2013 event is open to all Amateur Radio operators. Amateurs are to use the exchange as specified in ARRL rules for Field Day. The AMSAT competition is to encourage the use of all amateur satellites, both analog and digital.

For the complete listing of the AMSAT Field Day Rules please refer to the documents posted on-line at:

http://www.amsatnet.com/2013fd.docx
http://www.amsatnet.com/2013fd.pdf

[We thank AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO for the above information]

Source: AMSAT-NA K9JKM

Jun 3 2013

UK’s SpaceKate Wins ‘Most Inspiring App’ – International Space Apps Challenge

SpaceKate T-10 AppThe App produced by broadcast journalist Kate Arkless Gray a.k.a. SpaceKate has won the Most Inspiring App category of the International Space Apps Challange.

Radio amateur and former ISS Commander and Chris Hadfield VA3OOG said about the App “Cool idea! A 10-minute alarm would be perfect”.

The app was initially produced over a busy weekend at Space Apps London and consequently won a place in the international judging. The small team, which consists of Kate Arkless Gray, João Neves, Ketan Majmudar and Dario Lofish have continued to develop the app and provisionally hope to launch it in July. Getting the app into the hands of the astronauts may take a little more time, but that is the aim.

Read more about SpaceKate’s T-10 App
http://spacekate.com/2013/t-10-wins-most-inspiring-app-international-space-apps-challenge/

SpaceKate on Twitter https://twitter.com/SpaceKate

SpaceKate on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceKate/116068865117993

SpaceKate: The time we took on Unilever – and won!
http://spacekate.com/2013/the-time-we-took-on-unliever-and-won/

International Space Apps Challange http://spaceappschallenge.org/

May 30 2013

ANTELSAT a Ham Radio SSTV CubeSat from Uruguay

ANTELSAT CubeSat

ANTELSAT CubeSat

ANTELSAT is a 2U CubeSat class satellite with a 70 cm SSTV downlink and amateur radio AX.25 Digipeater that is planning a Yasny Dnepr launch in November, 2013. It has been developed by ANTEL (the national telecom service provider) and Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad de la República (FING), the State Faculty of Engineering.

The purpose is to build and operate the first satellite ever launched into orbit by Uruguay. Its goal is to develop skills in radio and aerospace engineering, to promote enthusiasm in STEM education at all levels, and provide challenging activities for undergraduate students. The spacecraft is planned to transmit colour and infrared images of the surface of the earth, and to provide several services to radio amateurs (AX.25 digipeater, telemetry beacon, uplink signal report, SSTV downlink). The mission is purely experimental and a technology demonstrator of all the satellite subsystems, which have been custom designed locally.

Communications:
– VHF receiver on 2m amateur band, 1200bps AX25 protocol.
– Telecommand uplink.
– Store and forward (digipeater) service uplink.
– UHF transmitter on 70cm amateur band:
– CW beacon.
– Telemetry downlink at 1200 bps AX25 protocol.
– Backup downlink for image data via low resolution SSTV.
– Store and forward service downlink.
– S-band transmitter on 2.4 GHz:
– Downlink for payload image data.
– Telemetry backup link.
– 2 redundant transmitters.

Attitude control:
– Attitude determination via magnetometer and photodetectors.
– Active 3-axis control via magnetorquers.

Brochure: http://iie.fing.edu.uy/investigacion/grupos/lai/files/ANTELSAT_brochure_2012W01.pdf

It is reported that ANTEL contributed nearly $700,000 towards the project
http://tinyurl.com/ANTELSAT-2013

ANTELSAT in Google English http://tinyurl.com/ANTELSAT

IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Status http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru

May 30 2013

CubeSat Workshop Surrey Space Centre July 19

Surrey Space Centre University of Surrey, Guildford

Surrey Space Centre
University of Surrey, Guildford

Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and AMSAT-UK invite anyone with CubeSat equipment to a ‘Bring Your Own Board’ (BYOB) CubeSat workshop. The aims are to demonstrate the latest CubeSat developments, to foster new partnerships and links within the UK and EU community, and encouraging more interaction with AMSAT-UK and the Colloquium (more info at: https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2013/).

Poster Stands (if required)

Poster Stands (if required)

The workshop is free to attend or present. Opening times are 9 AM to 4 PM, after which there will be the AMSAT-UK Satellite Beginners Session. There will be ad-hoc tours to SSC’s new cleanroom, ground-station, and CubeSat experimentation facilities.

Information for Demonstrators:
• Must have working hardware for demonstrating to visitors, i.e. TRL 5-6 and above.
• Provide a 1 slide overview of their developments and how it can benefit new UK missions for public show.
• A 1.5 m table, power and 1 m poster area will be provided.

Sign up: If you are interested in attending or demonstrating, please contact Dr Chris Bridges M6OBC to guarantee you a table and to estimate numbers.
Email: c.p.bridges@surrey.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0)1483 689137, Surrey Space Centre, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, U.K. Website: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ssc

Download poster here.

Key Dates for your diary:
UK Space Agency Conference: 16-17 July 2013
Bring Your Own Boards Workshop: 19 July 2013
AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2013: 20-21 July 2013

STRaND-1 Engineering Model and Cleanroom

STRaND-1 Engineering Model and Cleanroom

May 30 2013

Amateur Radio CubeBug-2 hopes for November 2013 Yasny Dnepr launch

CubeBug-1

CubeBug-1

CubeBug-2 is the second technology demonstration mission for a new 2U CubeSat platform design (mechanics, hardware and software) intended to be released as Open Source and Open Hardware for its use in Amateur projects, University projects and Research labs.

This project is sponsored by the Argentinian Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation. As payload on this second mission, some custom designed components will be tested: an antenna, solar panels, and an on-board computer, a camera, a GPS transceiver and a software defined radio based on COTS components.

CubeBug-2 is expected to be launched as part of a group of CubeSats in a DNEPR rocket launch planned for November 2013 from Yasny.

The satellite will be periodically transmitting AX.25 packets for the Amateur radio community to receive, and after the technology demonstration part of the mission is over, the satellite will enter a mode that will include a Digipeater, science data downloads from the payload (including images and recordings from the SDR, if possible).

Proposing to use 1k2/9k6 FSK/GMSK AX25 on UHF with an AstroDev L1 transceiver.

Its predecessor CubeBug-1 launched on a CZ-2D rocket from the Jiuquan Space Center on April 26, 2013 at 0413 UT.

CubeBug website http://1.cubebug.org/

IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Status http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru