Feb 5 2012

Foundation Licensee Works the Amateur Radio Satellites

In this video Foundation holder Andreas Kellner VK4FHAW from Queensland works an amateur radio satellite using his homebrew LEO satellite system.

Watch Leo_0001.wmv

Read John Heath G7HIA’s article ‘Getting started on amateur radio satellites’ http://www.uk.amsat.org/267

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

Working the FM satellites http://www.uk.amsat.org/2377

Working the FM-Sat SO-50 http://www.uk.amsat.org/4203

SimpleSatLookDown satellite tracking software http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=8217

Satellite Pass Predictions http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/

Feb 5 2012

Hungarian Students Request Reports of Telemetry Data

Masat-1 CubeSat

Masat-1 CubeSat

Andras Gschwindt HA5WH is requesting Radio Amateurs to send reports of telemetry data from the Hungarian student satellite Masat-1 due to be launched on February 13.

Andras HA5WH, head of the student group that made the first Hungarian CubeSat, Masat-1, says:

Masat-1 is a 1U cubesat and its basic mission is a technological experiment. You can find more on our web site: http://cubesat.bme.hu/en/ 

Masat-1 is onboard the Vega rocket which we hope will launch on February 13. My students at The Technical University of  Budapest, are in need of telemetry data especially in the first one to two weeks after launch.

I would like to ask you to help us with the reception of our satellite by sending the received data back to us.

You can load the decoder software from our page but the most important would be the reception of the voltage and temperature from the CW data.

The call sign of Masat-1 is HA5MASAT and the telemetry transmission frequency is  437.345 MHz +/- 10 kHz Doppler shift. (the signal will start at 437.355 MHz and drift down to 437.335 MHz during a 10-15 minute orbital pass)

Watch the Masat-1 Eliptical Orbit video

The Masat-1 Ground Station Client Software was prepared to process the 437.345 MHz GFSK 625/1250 bps transmission received from the satellite Masat-1. The software provides the following functions:

– Audio demodulation
– Packet decoding
– Packet data visualization
– Frequency waterfall plot to aid radio tuning

Download the software and a test WAV file from http://cubesat.bme.hu/en/foldi-allomas/kliens-szoftver/

Some of the Masat-1 Team

Some of the Masat-1 Team

Further information on Masat-1 is at http://www.uk.amsat.org/4249

For frequencies and URL links of the eight student built amateur radio satellites on Vega see http://www.uk.amsat.org/4180

Feb 5 2012

UKSEDS – Students for the Exploration and Development of Space

Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit

Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit

Members of UKSEDS are developing an amateur radio satellite payload called myPocketQub442 (437.425-437.525 MHz) that will fly on the UKube-1 satellite towards the end of the year.

UKSEDS is a space enthusiast organisation for both school and university students. Anyone who is interested can become a member of UKSEDS, young or old, student or non-student. Its aims are:

– To promote the exploration of space, and the research and development of space-related technologies.
– To provide a forum through which students can become involved in the international space community.
– To motivate students to excel in space-related fields.
– To share in the advancing knowledge and growing benefits to be reaped from space.
– To improve space-related education through both academic work and hands-on projects.

UKSEDS holds an annual National Conference, which brings together students throughout the country to learn more about space and to meet professionals in the space business.

Their myPocketQub442 project has been selected to fly on the UK Space Agency’s first mission UKube-1. Read all about it at http://ukseds.org/projects/ukube/

Members of the group took part in a parabolic flight on which they tested the hinges that deploy the solar panels of UKube-1.

Watch Microgravity-on-Demand 1/20111120/P11/3D1L raw video

OpenSpace365 myPocketQub442 List of Missions http://openspace365.appspot.com/

If you are interested in setting up a UKSEDS branch at your school or university please see
http://ukseds.org/branches/

UKSEDS http://ukseds.org/

Feb 5 2012

Vega Launch on February 13 with Eight Amateur Band CubeSats

Artists impression of Vega launch

Artists impression of Vega launch

Vega is now scheduled to launch on Monday, February 13, at 1000 UT with eight student built amateur radio satellites. The launcher will first deploy the main payload, the LARES the Laser relativity Spacecraft and will then make an additional firing of the final AVUM stage before deploying the secondary CubeSat and Microsatellite payloads.

The planned timing for these deployments are as follows:

= T0+ 4245.30secs first PPOD, with (in order of ejection) XatCobeo, e-st@r, and Goliat
= T0+ 4255.30secs second PPOD, with (in order of ejection) Robusta, MaSat-1 and  PW-Sat
= T0+ 4265.30secs third PPOD, with UniCubeSat only (These Cubesats will not deploy their antennas until >1800 seconds after they leave their PODS.)
= T0+ 4275.30secs  AlmaSat-1 – it is not known how soon this spacecraft will start transmitting after deployment

Frequencies for the satellites on the Vega Launch are:

+ ALMASat-1 – University of Bologna, Italy 437.465 MHz 1200 bps FSK and 2407.850 MHz

+ Xatcobeo (a collaboration of the University of Vigo and INTA, Spain) to demonstrate software-defined radio and solar panel deployment. 437.365 MHz FFSK with AX.25 and 145.940 MHz SSR

+ Robusta (University of Montpellier 2, France) to test and evaluate radiation effects (low dose rate) on bipolar transistor electronic components. 437.325 MHz 1200 bps FM telemetry with one data burst of 20 seconds every 3 minutes.

+ e-st@r (Politecnico di Torino, Italy) to demonstration of an active 3-axis Attitude Determination and Control system including an inertial measurement unit. 437.445 MHz 1200 bps AFSK.

+ Goliat (University of Bucharest, Romania) to provide imaging of the Earth surface using a digital camera and in-situ measurement of radiation dose and micrometeoroid flux. 437.485 MHz 1200 bps AFSK.

+ PW-Sat (Warsaw University of Technology, Poland) to test a deployable atmospheric drag augmentation device for de-orbiting CubeSats. PW-Sat carries an FM to DSB amateur radio transponder with an FM input on 435.020 MHz and DSB output on 145.900 MHz. There are 5 modes of operation:
– Receive only – no downlink
– CW Beacon CW – On-Off Keying (OOK) CW 12 WPM 435.020 MHz
– BPSK Beacon – BPSK 1200 bps AX25 (1 frame on 20 sec) 435.020 MHz
– Control communication mode. Downlink BPSK 1200 bps AX25 435.020 MHz
– Voice Repeater mode (aka “AO-16 mode) – uplink 435.020 MHz FM and downlink 145.900 MHz DSB

+ MaSat-1 (Budapest University of Technology and Economics): to demonstrate various spacecraft avionics, including a power conditioning system, transceiver and on-board data handling. 437.345 MHz GFSK 625/1250 bps, CW. See the related article in these bulletins describing the downloadable GFSK demodulator software.

+ UniCubeSat GG – (University of Rome): The UNICubeSat mission goal is the in-situ measurement of atmospheric density. Downlink frequencies are 437.305 MHz or 437.345 MHz 9k6 FSK.

Mineo Wakita, JE9PEL provides complete coverage of the Vega launch on his ‘ESA CubeSats Update’ web pages. You’ll find an overview of each of the satellite missions, frequencies, modulation/protocols, and links to the developers home web pages posted at: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/esa9cubf.htm

AMSAT-UK covers the Vega launch at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/4180

An ESA time-lapse showing the full assembly of the first Vega launcher at the launch pad at the ESA Spaceport in Kourou is posted at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaUMSLU0aig

The student teams have requested reception reports. All observers are being encouraged to join the CubeSat IRC chat channel to pass on their news and comments in realtime. You will need an IRC client such as ChatZilla or mIRC to join the cubesat chat. Use the irc.freenode.net server. Then join the #cubesat channel. Many users set their chat nickname to “name_callsign”.

AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

AMSAT News Service (ANS)

Feb 5 2012

SO-67 amateur radio operation may resume soon

Sumbandilasat SO-67

Sumbandilasat SO-67

Ingenuity and innovation by the SumbandilaSat (SO-67) ground control team has resulted in bringing the satellite back to life with a real possibility that Amateur Radio communication may resume next month while the satellite is in sunlight.

The ground stations at SANSA Space operations at Hartbeeshoek and the Electronic Systems Laboratory at Stellenbosch University are receiving telemetry when the satellite’s solar panels are illuminated by the sun.

The ground stations at SANSA Space operations at Hartbeeshoek and the Electronic Systems Laboratory at Stellenbosch University are receiving telemetry when the satellite’s solar panels are illuminated by the sun.

Johann Lochner, ZR1CBC, said that in early June 2011, for an unknown  eason (but probably related to a major radiation event on 7 June), the primary controller on the power distribution unit (PDU) powering the On-Board Computer (OBC) stopped responding to commands from the ground station.

It later appeared that the battery had failed and nothing was heard from the satellite for some time. The ground segment software to monitor the passes over South Africa and to contact the satellite to initiate the recovery procedure was automated. After a month contact was made again.

This was mid November. “We set in place a planned recovery procedure and within 3-4 days we came to the conclusion that the main battery had failed”, Johann said. With SumbandilaSat responding when it is in full sunlight Johan Lochner is confident that some operations will be restored even to the point where it may be possible to do some imaging and have the amateur radio transponder back in operation.

More on recovery efforts are on line at www.amsatsa.org.za

SumbandilaSat (SO-67) carries an amateur radio voice beacon, parrot repeater and VHF/UHF FM repeater. The frequencies are:
Uplink: 145.875 MHz FM
Downlink: 435.345 MHz FM
Activation tones: 233.6 Hz
Parrot: 218.1 Hz

January defenseWeb story ‘SumbandilaSat beyond repair’ http://www.uk.amsat.org/4076

The Sounds of SO-67 http://www.southgatearc.org/news/january2010/
sounds_of_so67.htm

Satellite Pass Predictions http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/

John Heath G7HIA’s article  ‘Getting started on amateur radio satellites’ can be downloaded from http://www.uk.amsat.org/267

AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

Feb 4 2012

Meet the teams: Robusta

Seven teams of university students were selected to fly their CubeSats on the maiden flight of ESA’s Vega launch vehicle. Here is an introduction to the French Robusta team.

University Université Montpellier 2
Endorsing professors Laurent Dusseau, Sylvie Jarrix, Jérome Boch, Jean Roch Vaillé, Gerard Gervois, Thierry Fiol, Fred Giamarchi, Julien Christine, Bernard Clotilde, Valérie Ponsa, Julien Averseng, Jean François Dubé , Jean Marc Gallière
Team Muriel Bernard, Amable Blain, Cyril Bonneau, Nabil Boureghda, Christelle Deneau, Stéphanie Dhombres, Adrien Doridan, Lucas, Pradier, Gauthier Gibert, Stéphanie Perez, Thomas Balard, Fabien Roig, Victor Gasia

 Robusta was initiated by the radiation effects group (RADIAC) at the Université Montpellier 2 (UM2) which, with 30 years of experience, is one of the world’s leading groups in its field. The CubeSat followed on from the group’s involvement in the development of a radiation effect payload on board the SACRED satellite.

Although SACRED was lost during launch in 2006, the group was aware that the different departments of UM2 possessed all of the knowledge necessary to build a small satellite. Their opportunity to become involved in a real hands-on project came in 2006, with the launch of the EXPRESSO (EXpérimentations et Projets Etudiants dans le domaine des SystèmeS Orbitaux et des ballons) student initiative by the French Space Agency, CNES.

A CubeSat team was put together by professors and students from the Montpellier Faculty of Science, the Polytech’s High School of Engineering, and the Institute of Technology at Nîmes, and ROBUSTA was one of three student projects selected under EXPRESSO. It was subsequently chosen by ESA as an educational payload on the maiden flight of the Vega launcher.

The objective of the mission is to measure the effects of exposing bipolar electronic components to prolonged low doses of ionising radiation. The Robusta payload will send back data on the degradation of key parameters of integrated circuits, which are commonly used in the aerospace industry. Each parameter will be measured every 12 hours, while measurements of the radiation dose will be received every 90 minutes, and temperature data every 6 minutes.

The data showing the performance of the electronic circuits will be sent to the ground for analysis and comparison with results obtained during ground tests developed by the UM2 radiation effects group. The monitoring of the radiation dose with the OSL radiation sensor, developed by UM2, will also provide valuable information on Earth’s radiation belts.

The experiment will provide valuable results not only for the group, but for the whole space radiation effects community. The harsh radiation environment that will be encountered during the satellite’s first months in orbit is particularly suitable for performing this kind of study.

The CubeSat experience

How did the team members deal with the experience of CubeSat selection, design, construction, testing and integration?

“During the project, older students took charge of the younger ones. Because there was a place for everyone, recruitment was possible by word of mouth.

“One of the most exciting challenges was the difficulty of having both students and professors from different sites, different schools and technical backgrounds working together on a project. It required strong project and documentation management, but, above all, a real team spirit was raised. Since we received technical and financial support from CNES, we benefited from the mentoring of CNES experts, who provided guidance at all stages of the project.”