NASA Seeks Academic Partners for Smallsat Technology Collaboration

Image NASA - Franklin image credit to Paul D. Stewart

Image NASA – Franklin image credit to Paul D. Stewart

NASA is seeking small spacecraft technology project proposals from U.S. colleges and universities that would like to collaborate with agency researchers.

Small spacecraft, or smallsats, represent a growing field of space research and operations in which universities often have led the way in technology development. Smallsats, some of which are as small as a four-inch cube, are not expected to replace conventional spacecraft, but sometimes can provide an alternative to larger, more costly spacecraft. Smallsats can serve as platforms for rapid technology testing or specialized scientific research and exploration not otherwise possible. Smallsats also can be developed relatively quickly and inexpensively, and can share a ride to orbit with larger spacecraft.

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STRaND-1 Signal Reports Requested

Dr Chris Bridges M6OBC and STRaND-1

Dr Chris Bridges M6OBC and STRaND-1

Dr Chris Bridges M6OBC from the Surrey Space Centre has advised that the amateur radio beacon on their STRaND-1 CubeSat became intermittent over the Easter weekend.

Both Mike Rupprecht DK3WN and Nader Omer ST2NH have reported that no signals have been heard since Sunday.

Radio amateurs, especially those outside Europe, are asked to listen for STRaND-1 over the next few days and report any positive results to C.P.Bridges at surrey.ac.uk . Listen for a 9k6 signal around 437.568 MHz (+/- Doppler).

STRaND-1 https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/strand-1/

STRaND-1 telemetry https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/strand-1/strand-1-telemetry/

STRaND-1 videos https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/strand-1/strand-1-videos/

Final IARU-R1 Vienna 2013 Papers Released

AMSAT-UK_Bevelled_LogoThe final set of VHF/UHF/uW papers for the IARU Region 1 Interim meeting in Vienna, April 20-21, have been released.

They include a number of papers related to Amateur-Satellite Service allocations:
• VIE13_C5_03 Increased Amateur‐Satellite Service 144MHz Usage
• VIE13_C5_05 Recommendations for DATV Transmission
• VIE13_C5_24 Region 1 Satellite Coordinator Report
• VIE13_C5_27 New Narrow‐Band working frequencies in the 2300–2450 MHz band
• VIE13_C5_32 2400MHz Amateur Satellites

Download the papers here.

Discussion on the papers can be found on the RSGB C5 Yahoo Group at
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/ukc5discussion/

Video – NextGen CubeSat Project – 2010 Dayton Hamvention

NextGen CubeSat Project, a presentation prepared by Alex Harvilchuck N3NP and presented by Dr. Charles Westgate WC2R during the AMSAT Forum at the 2010 Dayton Hamvention.

Watch NextGen CubeSat Project

See other AMSAT-NA videos at http://www.youtube.com/AMSATNA

G100RSGB on Amateur Radio Satellites

FRARS_HQClive G7SVI reports that G100RSGB should be active on the amateur radio satellites on Thursday, April 4.

The Flight Refueling Amateur Radio Society will be hosting the RSGB Centenary Call G100RSGB from their club house at Merley, Wimborne, Dorset, BH21 3DA and should be active from 1.8 – 440 MHz including the amateur satellite frequencies.

These are the passes on Thursday high enough for them to attempt some contacts (times GMT):

VO-52 08:32 – 08:42
AO-7 08:58 – 09:13
FO-29 10:03 – 10:21
FO-29 11:48 – 12:05
AO-7 12:37 – 12:51
AO-7 14:25 – 14:44
AO-7 16:16 – 16:37
VO-52 17:54 – 18:06

They will post alerts at http://www.rsgb.org/aboutrsgb/rsgbcentenary2013/?id=alerts-and-spots

Flight Refueling Amateur Radio Society http://www.frars.org.uk/

Amateur Radio Satellite at 15th European Interparliamentary Space Conference

FUNcube-1 flight model - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 – Image credit PA3WEG

The European Interparliamentary Space Conference (EISC) workshop on small, micro, nano and CubeSat missions took place on March 25 in Redu, Belgium.

AMSAT Belgium and the UBA took advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate the engineering model of the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-1 satellite along with the FUNcube Dongle SDR for telemetry decoding.

Jan Poppeliers ON7UX has released this video of the event which also covers the European Student Earth Orbiter ESEO satellite, ALMASat-1, and the QB50 project:

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