Apr 5 2012

A Special EME Operation from QM06 Japan

A Japan-Broadcasting Corporation TV report from 2007 featuring Mike Watanabe JH1KRC has just been made available on YouTube.

The YouTube description reads:

KDDI, one of the Japanese telecommunication services companies, has assigned to make experimental cooperation with the Project BIG-DISH, composed of some forty Japanese moon bouncers, and JARL.

We will use the antenna IBA-4, which is the 4th antenna of Ibaraki Satellite Communications Center, KDDI Corporation, for the experimental moon bounce operation on 144, 432, 1296 and possibly 5760 MHz bands. IBA-4 is a 32-metre Cassegrain dish made by Mitshubishi Electric Corporation in 1980’s, and is located in the grid QM06.

The IBA-4 is fully rotable and the elevation is possible up to 90 degrees for automatic moon tracking. The largest problem we have is that we cannot remove the subreflector, 2.9-m in diameter, about 9 metres in front of the main reflector. Therefore we have to use this subreflector in some way for the EME operation.

Our EME operation license is still waiting for the four bands, 144, 432, 1296, and 5760 MHz. The 5760 MHz high power moon bounce transmission is still in discussion in the ministry. Other bands are sure to be licensed for the operation with 500 watts output. We will use callsign 8N1EME. The intensive operating modes are CW, SSB, and JT65 specially on 144 and possiby on 432 also. Fundamentally, we think that random QSOs are most important, although, some scheduled QSOs may be considered for any special reason. Antennas in use will be vertilac pol. on 144 and 432 MHz, the usual EME circular pol. on 1296, and 5760 MHz.

The operation took place late February and early March, in 2007.

Watch 8N1EME-NHK-NEWS(NHK(Japan-Broadcasting Corp.))

Project Big Dish http://8n1eme.jp/

Apr 5 2012

New Frequencies for Polish Radio Amateurs

Poland’s national society the Polski Związek Krótkofalowców (PZK) has announced new frequency allocations for the Amateur and Amateur-satellite Services.

The frequency range 2400-2450 MHz has been allocated to the Amateur-satellite Service and it is understood that one of the  BRITE-PL amateur radio nanosats will be making use of this allocation.

In addition frequency allocations of 70.1-70.3 MHz and 3400-3410 MHz have been made available to the Amateur Service.

Some of the students who worked on the Amateur Radio CubeSat PW-SAT (launched January, 2012) went on to work on the development of the two BRITE-PL nanosats.

Polski Związek Krótkofalowców (PZK) in Google English
http://tinyurl.com/PolandPZK

BRITE-PL http://www.brite-pl.pl/index_en.html

BRITE Project http://www.utias-sfl.net/docs/LivePapersAsOfJan2011/BRITE-COSPAR2010-PaperSR-WW-REZ-SM-AS-TM.pdf

BRITE TV http://www.uk.amsat.org/3054

IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination pages hosted by AMSAT-UK http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/

Apr 4 2012

Radio New Zealand – KiwiSpace Interview

A group of New Zealanders will be taking part on an epic journey. They’re going to Mars – or at least a simulation of what a space station on Mars would be like.

Six crew-members will be heading deep into the Utah desert from April 22 to May 6, 2012,
to undertake a 2-week mission of exploration and research at the Mars Desert Research Station.

Listen to the Radio New Zealand interview at http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/20120404

KiwiMars http://www.kiwispace.org.nz/display/MDRS/The+Science+beyond+KiwiMars+Expedition

KiwiSpace http://www.kiwispace.org.nz/

Apr 4 2012

IARU Announces Coordinated Frequencies for Two CubeSats

The IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel have announced coordinated frequencies for two new CubeSats.

The downlink frequencies announced are:

TechEdSat  – 437.465 MHz
HumSAT-D  – 437.365 MHz

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

To assist builders and prospective builders of satellites that will operate on frequencies allocated by the ITU to the Amateur Service, a comprehensive set of guidelines have been produced, see  http://www.iaru.org/satellite/

Apr 4 2012

AUC – CubeSat I AUC has decided to join the quest for space technology, and develop the 1st ever student-built satellite in Egypt.

 

The CubeSat Program has revolutionized the space industry and space activities. Access to space turned from an obscure dream to a vivid reality to many research and academic institutions around the world. The American University in Cairo has the capacity and the expertise to join this prestigious club of ambitious institutions in the quest for space technology. Contrary to the belief that it requires a team of rocket scientists to design, build, and operate a spacecraft, the project is a multi-disciplinary effort, leveraging insight and expertise accross multiple science and engineering discip-lines. AUC will be the first institution in the Arab Region to design and build a satellite.

This multidisciplinary project will stimulate technological research and innovation across many departments at AUC. Having hands on access to conceiving, designing, building and operating actual spacecrafts will provide students with a level of prestigious, unprecedented, interdisciplinary experience. In addition to the technical knowledge, students will develop leadership qualities, as well as project manag-ement and interpersonal skills that are invaluable in todays market, all of which will start to accumulate at the national level as students leave the university and enter the local industry. If you are interested in joining the CubeSat design team, and being part of this prestigious endeavor, please visit the “Join AUC – CubeSat” page for more information. Fady Michel, Ph.D. AUC – CubeSat System Architect AUC.CubeSat@gmail.com

http://www.SpaceExploration-eg.com/

Apr 2 2012

First-MOVE CubeSat Solar Panel Deployment Video

First-MOVE is a CubeSat being built by students at the Technical University of München.

MOVE stands for München Orbital Verification Experiment. The 1U CubeSat has two deployable solar panels carrying a new generation of solar cell. First-MOVE also carries a CCD camera.

Despite the narrow bandwidth data channel high quality pictures can be taken and transfered to Earth using a specially developed algorithm which filters the pictures due to content (Space, Earth horizon), compresses them, fragments them to small data packages and generates thumbnails for preview.

First-MOVE completed integration in April 2012.

Watch First-MOVE Flap Panel Deployment Test

Watch First-MOVE Complete Integration