Mar 8 2012

AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2012 First Call for Speakers

Holiday Inn Guildford GU2 7XZ

Holiday Inn Guildford GU2 7XZ

The AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium will be held on September 15-16, 2012 in Guildford.

The Colloquium attracts an international audience from across Europe as well as North America and the Middle East. Attendees range from the builders of the CubeSats and Nanosats, those who communicate through them and beginners who wish to find out more about this fascinating branch of the hobby.

It provides a rare opportunity to chat with satellite designers and builders, discussions frequently continue until the early hours of the morning.

A Gala dinner is held on the Saturday evening along with the fund raising auction.

This is the first call for speakers for the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium 2012 which, due to the Olympic & Paralympic Games, will be held this year on the weekend of September 15-16, 2012 at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ, United Kingdom.

This Colloquium will take place a few weeks before the planned launch of AMSAT-UK’s FUNcube-1 satellite carrying a 435/145 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW communications.

AMSAT-UK invites speakers, to cover topics about micro-satellites, CubeSats, Nanosats, space and associated activities, for this event.

They are also invited to submit papers for subsequent publishing on the AMSAT-UK web site. We normally prefer authors to present talks themselves rather than having someone else give them in the authors’ absence. We also welcome “unpresented” papers for the web site.

We appreciate that it is not always possible to give a firm indication of attendance at this stage but expressions of interest would be appreciated.

Submissions should be sent *ONLY* to G4DPZ, via the following routes:

e-mail: david dot johnson at blackpepper dot co dot uk

Postal address at http://www.qrz.com/db/G4DPZ

AMSAT-UK also invite anyone with requests for Program Topics to submit them as soon as possible to G4DPZ. Invitations for any papers on specific subjects will be included in the future call. Likewise if anyone knows of a good speaker, please send contact and other information to G4DPZ.

AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium http://www.uk.amsat.org/colloquium/twelve

Mar 8 2012

VO-52 Transponder Activation Postponed

HAMSAT VO-52

HAMSAT VO-52

It had been hoped that the amateur radio SSB/CW satellite HAMSAT (VO-52) would be reactivated on Thursday, March 8 but this has now been postponed.

More time is needed to carry out observations on the state of the satellite, which fell silent Feb. 28, so the activation has been put back by at least a week.

HAMSAT (VO-52) carries two linear transponders for SSB/CW operation. It had been using the Indian transponder but when it is switched back on it will use the Dutch transponder built by William Leijenaar PE1RAH. The frequencies used will be:

Uplink:         435.2250 – 435.2750 MHz SSB/CW
Downlink:     145.9250 – 145.8750 MHz SSB/CW
Beacon:       145.8600 MHz CW

Working the SSB satellites http://www.uk.amsat.org/2712

HAMSAT VO-52 Falls Silent http://www.uk.amsat.org/5217

Leijenaar Electronics http://www.leijenaarelectronics.nl/

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

Mar 7 2012

New Cuban Amateur Radio Satellite Group formed

Hector CO6CBF brings news of the formation of Grupo de Radioaficionados para Operaciones Satelitales (GROS). He writes:

We are pleased to inform that:

The Cuban Amateur Radio Federation (FRC) has created its first officially Satellite Group in the history.

Raydel CM2ESP, CO7WT Pavel and I were working on the statutes and made the request to the FRC headquarters.

The request was approved on March 3rd and its official name is Grupo de Radioaficionados para Operaciones Satelitales (GROS).

Its principal mission is: promote the Amateur radio by Satellites in our country and motivate the Hams to operate on Satellites.

Now, we are planning our first Meeting in Havana city.

73!

Hector, CO6CBF

Mar 7 2012

Amateur Radio Spacecraft LightSail-1

Artists_impression_of_LightSail

Artists impression of LightSail - Image Credit Planetary Society

The amateur radio spacecraft LightSail-1 is a 32 square metre solar sail demonstrator.

The first full scale deployment of  the solar sail was conducted on March 4, 2011 at Stellar Exploration in San Luis Obispo, California. Read more

After launch LightSail-1 will spend a few weeks in orbit during which the team will check out the subsystems. The side panels will then be deployed, exposing a folded sail, and a motor driven sail deployment will extend rigid booms.

With the sail deployed, the primary operation for the spacecraft are performing 90 degree slews to get the sail normal to the sun vector, or edge on with the sun vector.

A combination of ground based sensors and on board sensors will be used to characterize the acceleration due to solar pressure. Imagers on the deployed panels are used to capture the sail deployment.

Proposing to have a downlink in the 435 MHz band with 1.5W output, semi-duplex 9k6 GMSK AX25 with a CW preamble to a single monopole. LightSail-1 is a 3U CubeSat weighing around 4.5 kg. More information will be available at http://polysat.calpoly.edu/LightSail.php

Watch LightSail-1 Video Update: Construction Begins!

The Planetary Society‘s LightSail program will launch three separate spacecraft over the course of several years, beginning with LightSail-1. Lightsail-2 will attempt a longer duration flight to higher Earth orbits, demonstrating that solar sails can increase their orbital energy and taking the next major step toward using solar sails for missions in and beyond Earth orbit.

LightSail-3 will fly to the Sun-Earth Libration Point, L1, where solar sail spacecraft could be permanently placed as solar weather stations, monitoring the geomagnetic storms from the Sun that potentially endanger electrical grids on Earth as well as satellites in Earth orbit.

Article LightSail-1 Nears Critical Design Review http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=12722

Centauri Dreams http://www.centauri-dreams.org/

Planetary Society – LightSail http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/innovative_technologies/solar_sailing/multimission_project.html

Mar 7 2012

UK Space Agency boost for tomorrow’s tiny space tech.

Sixteen UK space labs and companies are set to benefit from the latest round of the UK Space Agency’s National Space Technology Programme (NSTP) which will spur innovation in the fast-moving area of space technology known as ‘cubesats’.Artist's impression of a CubeSat. Credit: AMSAT-UK.

Artist’s impression of a CubeSat.
Credit: AMSAT-UK.

Cubesats are tiny, low-cost spacecraft – weighing only a few kilos – which can be launched ‘piggy-back’ on larger spacecraft. Many of today’s cubesats are proving to be great educational projects helping students hone practical skills in building and operating satellites. However, with advances in technology, many experts believe they will also be used for cutting-edge science or operational uses in the future.

The UK is already the world leader in small satellites through Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). Ten years ago, SSTL benefited from UK government investment helping it to grow into a world-class company. Today, the UK Space Agency is following the same road to space innovation by supporting cubesat technology. Already, UKube-1 – a sophisticated nanosat with an imager, scientific and educational payloads – is being built by leading cubesat company Clyde Space Ltd. in Scotland.

Now, eleven new research projects supported by £310k of grants from the National Space Technology Programme (PDF, 18 Kb)  will drive the next steps in British cubesat know-how.

“It’s going to be exciting to see what emerges”

Dr Chris Castelli, programme manager at the UK Space Agency explains: “We received 30 proposals to our recent competition and have now selected the best ones to fund. We’ve got a great range of ideas – from new technology such as wireless on-board monitoring and tiny thrusters to give cubesats their own manoeuvring capability; to practical uses such as bioscience and space-weather monitoring. All these ideas will feed into our thinking for a successor to UKube-1, which we hope to select in 2013. It’s going to be exciting to see what emerges.”

Cubesats represent only one part of the Agency’s innovation agenda which also encompasses giant communications satellites such as Alphasat and the exploration of the Universe through missions such as Herschel and Planck.

UK Space Agency logo
Mar 6 2012

DQ0STRATEX VHF & UHF Balloon Mission March 10

DL, GERMANY
DQ0STRATEX is a special event call on the occasion of the stratospheric balloon project (StratexB) planned for March 2012 by the local DARC clubs Duelmen (N28) and Luedinghausen (N29). They plan to send an amateur radio load, consisting of an APRS and a speech beacon, to the stratosphere with this balloon project. Another payload will be added by the HAMs of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Bremen (I04) with an experimental ADS-B receiver. The special event station DQ0STRATEX is active in all modes on all bands between Jan 13,2012, and Jan 31, 2013, handing out the special DOK STRATEXB.

They have two balloon missions planned, on Mar 10 around 0930 UTC and on Mar 24 around 1600 UTC, both starting on the airport at Borkenberge near Luedinghausen.

The APRS beacon is transmitting on 144.800 MHz and the speech beacon in FM on 430.375 MHz. SWL reports are highly appreciated (also online).

QSL cards via DK4REX. See also: http://www.darc.de/distrikte/n/29

[ANS thanks the DXNL 1770 – Mar 7, 2012 DX Newsletter for the above information]

—
73 de JoAnne K9JKM
k9jkm@amsat.org
Editor, AMSAT News Service