Apr 10 2013

UK Students Fly CubeSat to 30km

WUSAT Team with CubeSat ready to launch - Image credit Warwick University

WUSAT Team with CubeSat ready to launch – Image credit Warwick University

On Saturday, April 6 students from the University of Warwick sent a CubeSat 30km into the stratosphere.

Starting from near Welshpool, the CubeSat travelled high into the stratosphere, to over 30km above the Earth’s surface, where the balloon popped and a parachute safely carried the CubeSat back to Earth. The prototype was successfully recovered from near Banbury following the 2 hour flight. The CubeSat carried three cameras and a radio communications link to transmit data and images. The tranceiver used was a XBee-PRO 868 (315mW) operating in the licence exempt 868 MHz band (the UK amateur radio licence prohibits aeronautical operation).

Picture taken by WUSAT - Image credit Warwick University

Picture taken by WUSAT – Image credit Warwick University

The Engineer reports:

The successful test launch – and recovery – is said to pave the way towards a longer-term plan to put a small satellite, built almost entirely by undergraduate students in the School of Engineering, into low-earth orbit at around 2,000 km.

The eight students have been working for the past year on the Warwick University Satellite (WUSAT) Project, which has been building a 10cm CubeSat capable of carrying equipment including cameras and sensors.

Read the article in The Engineer at
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/channels/skills-and-careers/news/balloon-launch-for-students-prototype-satellite/1016026.article

WUSAT Warwick University Satellite Project
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/cubesat

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

Twitter https://twitter.com/WUSAT_Team

WUSAT Winter 2013 Newsletter
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/meng/wusat/media/wusat_newsletter_2013_winter.pdf

The Engineer http://www.theengineer.co.uk/

Apr 10 2013

Attracting the next generation

PhoneSat Stand at 2012 Bay Area Maker Faire

PhoneSat Stand at 2012 Bay Area Maker Faire

In Aviation Week Michael Mecham reports the world’s university students come to work at Ames, which takes a leadership role in several areas for NASA, including smallsats, astrobiology and super computing.

“We have lots of internationals,” says NASA Ames Research Director Peter Wooden, referring to his young talent pool. “This is where opportunity comes for them. The ideas are what matters. It’s not your nationality.”

That opportunity arises because they stand such a good chance of getting their hands on a project like the PhoneSat-1/-2, a pair of cubesat-sized (10 cm square) nanosats due for launch Apr. 17 out of Wallops Island on an Antares, the new commercial launcher from Orbital Sciences.

The big deal about the PhoneSats is that they use the computing guts of smart phones bought at a big box store. They’re early tests of a low-risk, low-cost approach to satellite manufacturing that emphasizes the exploitation of off-the-shelf materials without a lot of fuss about whether they are “space proven.”

Worden says the aim is to arrive at the day when anyone with an idea can find a way onto a satellite by developing a “satellite app.”

Read the Aviation Week story by Michael Mecham at
http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx?plckBlogId=Blog:04ce340e-4b63-4d23-9695-d49ab661f385&plckPostId=Blog:04ce340e-4b63-4d23-9695-d49ab661f385Post:c407e584-c706-4af2-8713-b67c947b1c74

Aviation Week http://www.aviationweek.com/

All three PhoneSats will be transmitting on 437.425 MHz. TLE’s and further information should be available at http://www.phonesat.org/

Apr 9 2013

Amateur Radio FUNcube Project – Your advice requested

FUNcube-1 flight model - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 flight model – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

As part of the FUNcube project we now need to urgently decide which is going to be the best type of antenna to propose for use at schools and colleges to receive the 145MHz downlink signals from both FUNcube-1 and FUNcube-2 on UKube after launch.

Both spacecraft will be transmitting approx 300mW of BPSK 1k2 telemetry with FEC – FC-1 will be using a dipole antenna and will have passive magnetic attitude control. FC-2 on UKube will use a single monopole antenna and the spacecraft is intended to have active attitude control. This is primarily to ensure that the deployed solar panels are illuminated and that the face with the S band patch is usually earth pointing.

We believe that the resultant signal should be easily usable using an omnidirectional antenna but the questions is which would be the best type to use. Obviously ease of construction, cost, robustness and safety in a school environment will also be important factors as well as  suitable “gain” and circularity from horizon to horizon. We envisage that some operations may be from fixed installations with the antennas mounted permanently but some will be temporary – perhaps hand held or bolted to a step ladder or similar.

We know there are many AMSAT members around the globe with great experience in this field and, we suspect, with some strongly held views. So please let us have some constructive input about which type is likely to be best for this purpose – your comments, ideas and lessons learnt will be very valuable for us.

Thanks in advance for your support

73 Graham G3VZV – for the FUNcube Project team
Email: g3vzv at amsat.org

Apr 8 2013

7330 km contact on amateur radio satellite FO-29

Hector CO6CBF making a 6955 km contact on April 3

Hector CO6CBF making a 6955 km contact on April 3

On Monday at 1338 UT Hector Martinez CO6CBF achieved a 7330 km contact on the amateur radio satellite FO-29 the furthest he has worked and close to the theoretic maximum for the satellite.

Hector, who is in grid square EL92sd, worked David, EA4SG in IN80cp on SSB. He used a Yaesu FT-817ND transceiver, 30 watt power amplifier, and a homebrew Arrow with a homebrew mast mounted amplifier. Everything was powered by two 12 volt, 7 amp gel cell batteries. Hector operated from on top of a tall building which improved his horizon visibility toward Europe.

Hector says “We had just a 88 seconds window. Satellites are always fascinating! Thanks very much to David for this great contact and new grid! ”

Hector is looking for other FO-29 contacts in the UK and Europe. His email address for skeds is: co6cbf at frcuba.co.cu

FO-29 information https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/fuji-oscar-29-jas-2/

First Cuba to EI contact on FO-29 https://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/04/6955-km-contact-on-fo-29/

Apr 7 2013

Ham Radio Satellite Launches in April

AMSAT-UK_Bevelled_LogoApril looks a busy month for the launch of satellites carrying amateur radio payloads.

April 17 – Antares-110 carrying PhoneSats v1a, v1b, v2a.
Dove-1 is also listed on this launch but it’s unclear if it’s using Amateur-Satellite Service frequencies.
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/cargo/orbitalsciences-index.html
https://amsat-uk.org/?p=11544 (phonesat)

April 19 – Soyuz-2-1a carrying OSSI-1, BEESAT 2/3 and SOMP
Dove-2 is also listed on this launch but it’s unclear if it’s using Amateur-Satellite Service frequencies.
https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/ossi-1/
https://amsat-uk.org/2012/03/28/student-cubesats-beesat-2-and-beesat-3/
https://amsat-uk.org/?p=16017 (SOMP)

April 20 – Vega carrying ESTCube-1 [Update now May 2]
https://amsat-uk.org/?p=14774 (ESTCube-1)

April 26 – CZ-2D from the Jiuquan Space Center carrying the Mode J (145/435) linear transponder satellite TURKSAT-3USAT along with CubeBug-1 and NEE-01 Pegasus
https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/turksat-3usat/
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/03/22/cubebug-1/
https://amsat-uk.org/?p=14689 (NEE-01 has a downlink in the USA 902 MHz amateur band)

Note: planned launch dates can and do slip.

Apr 7 2013

STEREO Spacecraft now using Turbo Code Software written by AMSAT-DL

NASA STEREO Poster

NASA STEREO Poster

AMSAT-DL reports that on April 2, 2013, the two NASA STEREO space-based observatories switched to Turbo Codes to transmit their real-time space weather data permanently. A network of four ground stations, located at the IUZ in Bochum/Germany, CNES in Toulouse/France, NICT in Koganei/Japan and amateur radio station DL0SHF in Kiel-Ronne/Germany receives this data, and uses turbo-decoding software written by AMSAT-DL.

The Bochum station is run by AMSAT-DL e.V. and IUZ Bochum Observatory, with the support of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and DLR.

Said Doug Biesecker, NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center:

“Thanks to the wonderful work of our colleagues running the station in Bochum and the support of DLR, we can now be sure of receiving real-time data from the NASA/STEREO satellite throughout the life of the mission. The STEREO data has proven to provide significant benefits to space weather forecasting and is used by NOAA on a daily basis to ensure the best possible forecasts. Space weather increasingly threatens the technological infrastructure of our modern world, with demonstrated impacts on global positioning, power grids, and high frequency communication systems.”

The switch to Turbo Codes has improved reception capabilities of the ground stations by about 2 dB, which is a very welcome improvement giving the increasing distances – 269 and 286 million kilometers respectively – that need to be covered.

Source http://www.amsat-dl.org/index.php/news-mainmenu-97/194-stereo-turbo-amsateng

AMSAT-DL International Satellites for Communication, Science and Education http://tinyurl.com/AMSAT-DL