May 5 2013

AMSAT-India VO-52 satellite completes eight years in orbit

HAMSAT VO-52

HAMSAT VO-52

On Sunday, May 5, 2013 AMSAT-India’s VO-52 completed 8 years in orbit. During this time it has proved to be a valuable communications resource for the amateur radio community.

Mani, VU2WMY, posted this on the AMSAT Bulletin Board:

It gives us great and immense pleasure to say that ‘HAMSAT VO-52’ completes eight fruitful years in orbit contributing to the wonderful cause of ‘Amateur Radio Satellite Communication’.

The overall health parameters are excellent and we do hope that transponder(s) on-board ‘HAMSAT VO-52’ would continue to render good services for many more years to come.

On this joyous occasion,on behalf of everyone here in ISRO/India and on my personal behalf, I thank each and every user, contributors and well wishers for this great achievement.

Special thanks to Guru VU2GUR, Nitin VU3TYG, Partha VU2GPS, Sunil VU2UKR, Bob W7LRD and others for sending in their reports and suggestions for the possible HAMSAT 2.

73 es good wishes de

Mani, VU2WMY
Secretary & Station-In-Charge
Upagrah Amateur Radio Club VU2URC
ISRO Satellite Centre

How to make contacts through the VO-52 satellite
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/how-to-work-the-ssb-satellites/

Getting started on Amateur Radio satellites
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/radcom-getting-started-on-satellites/

2005 – HAMSAT launch was 100% successful
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2005/hamsat_update2.htm

AMSAT-India http://www.amsatindia.org/

May 4 2013

SdrDx adds Supports FUNcube Pro+

The New versin of SdrDx 2.12p adds support for the Andrus, FunCube Pro Plus and AFEDRI SDRs; It also provides various features and fixes. See the link to the changes document, below.
8165852338_cab45acfce_o

Downloads: http://fyngyrz.com/?p=915
Documentation: http://fyngyrz.com/sdrdxdoc/sitemap.html
Changes: http://fyngyrz.com/sdrdxdoc/changes212.html

May 4 2013

How to pack a big solar sail in a tiny cubesat

Nicolas Lee A still photo from an experiment video shows a tiny cubesat satellite prototype after deploying a folded sail in weightlessness aboard NASA's "vomit comet" research plane.

Nicolas Lee
A still photo from an experiment video shows a tiny cubesat satellite prototype after deploying a folded sail in weightlessness aboard NASA’s “vomit comet” research plane.

By Tia Ghose
Space.com

A simple paper-folding technique could help tiny satellites unfurl big sails in space to detect micrometeoroid impacts, scientists say.

The folding strategy, described Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical and Physical Sciences, could be used to pack relatively large sails into miniature satellites known as cubesats. When the sails pop out, they could provide a bigger area to catch meteoroid impacts.

“It’s like putting a bigger windshield on your car to catch more bugs,” said study co-author Nicolas Lee, an aerospace engineer at the California Institute of Technology.

 

May 1 2013

Find out about the BIS KickSat Sprite satellite

KickSat 437 MHz Sprite Satellite

KickSat 437 MHz Sprite Satellite

The British Interplanetary Society (BIS) invites those wishing to find out more about their KickSat Sprite to attend an end-to-end test day on Saturday, May 4.

The BIS invites people to participate in project KickSat, or simply come along to find out more.

Aims for the day
• End-to-end test – KickSat Sprite transmission to reception and decoded signal
• Connecting an antenna to the souvenir Sprite and getting the radio working
• Programming Sprites, including obtaining readings from the temperature sensor

Discussions on the day are likely to include:
• Programming options; less/more, safe/ambitious, pro’s/cons of each, etc.
• Ground stations; receiving, decoding, aggregating
• Virtualizing Sprites or creating mock-ups for testing

The following equipment will be available on the day:
• KickSat Sprite developer kit
• Souvenir sprite, antenna, solar cells, soldering equipment and a launchpad
• FUNcube dongles (at least one Pro and at least one Pro+)
• Laptop, projector and Wi-Fi

Bringing a laptop will be helpful for anyone wanting to participate. Also, bringing equipment to receive the test signals on a computer will be greatly appreciated.

The event takes place on Saturday, May 4, 2013 from 11:00 am to 5 pm at 27/29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ

Information about KickSat can be found at:
http://www.bis-space.com/category/bis-projects
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zacinaction/kicksat-your-personal-spacecraft-in-space

Further information and attendance registration at
http://www.bis-space.com/2013/04/14/9755/kicksat-end-to-end-testing

16 year-old UK student to work on KickSat Sprite
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/23/uk-student-to-work-on-kicksat/

The KickSat Sprites from both the BIS and London Hackspace are planned to launch, with 198 others, on the SpaceX Falcon 9 ELaNa 5 / CRS 3 mission on December 9, 2013.

Apr 30 2013

OPUSAT CubeSat

OPUSATOPUSAT is a 1U CubeSat designed and created by an OPU student team consisting of about 20 undergraduates and graduates at the Small Spacecraft Systems Research Center (SSSRC).

It is planning to use a 2 metre downlink for CW Beacon, 1k2 AFSK and 9k6 GMSK telemetry.

Mission Plans include
a. To operate technique of getting high power with Lithium-Ion Capacitor, control to the sun, and Maximum Power Point Tracking.
b. To open data of experiments on orbit and analytical software to the public.
c. To hold “competition of expecting object”.
d. To hold “competition of expecting the date of atmospheric entry

Planning for a 400 km circular 65 deg orbit with a launch by JAXA together with STARS-ⅡKagawa University,TeikyoSat-Teikyo University, ShindaiSat Shinshu University, INVADER Tama Art University and ITF-1 University of Tsukuba.

It is understood the primary payload is the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) due to launch in JFY 2013.

OPSAT in Google English http://tinyurl.com/OPUSAT

Apr 30 2013

Flying Laptop – 130 kg Satellite

Flying Laptop FLP satellite

Flying Laptop (FLP) satellite

The Flying Laptop (FLP) is a 130 kg spacecraft of 600 by 702 by 866 mm. It is the first satellite of the Small Satellites Program in Stuttgart. This mission aims to establish the foundation for the required infrastructure as well as the expertise for the Small Satellites Program of the Institute of Space Systems (IRS), University of Stuttgart. The satellite is developed and build at the IRS and will be operated with the institutes’ own ground station. The design, development, construction and future operation are primarily done by Ph.D. students and undergraduate students.

The satellite plans to demonstrate a number of innovative technologies including infra-red high speed optical links. Also three cameras with 25 metre resolution and an S Band downlink for near real time observations. Proposing 10 Mbit/s QPSK LHCP transmissions using CCSDS like protocol.

No launch yet confirmed but planning a sun synchronous LEO in late 2014. They have applied to the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) for coordinated Amateur Satellite Service frequencies.

More information from

https://oc.irs.uni-stuttgart.de/public.php?service=files&t=e12e0e7f821a3163d949a580672a3def

using the password hamradio13

Flying Laptop http://www.kleinsatelliten.de/index.php/en/flying-laptop.html