Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

May 20 2013

NEE-01 Pegasus 910 MHz TV Camera in Action

NEE-01 Pegasus (Pegaso) the first of two HD TV CubeSats built in Ecuador launched on a CZ-2D rocket from the Jiuquan Space Center on Friday, April 26 at 0413 UT.

The 1U CubeSat (10x10x10 cm) was built in Ecuador and carries a 0.9 watt output 720p HD TV transmitter on 910 MHz (an amateur radio band in some countries).

Watch NEE-01 Pegaso recording May 16, 2013

EarthCam has teamed up with the Ecuadorian Civilian Space Agency to deliver what EarthCam describe as an amazing viewing experience from an orbiting satellite. You can view the NEE-01 Pegasus SpaceCam online at http://www.earthcam.com/world/ecuador/ecsa/

NEE-01 Pegasus (Pegaso) https://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/25/nee-01-pegasus-hd-tv-cubesat/

January 2014 Ecuadorian Civil Space Company (EXA)—Imagery Involvement + An Important Recovery (Satellites) http://www.satnews.com/story.php?number=1323163133

May 19 2013

UK Astronaut to fly to International Space Station in 2015

UK astronaut Major Tim Peake

UK astronaut Major Tim Peake

The Guardian newspaper reports that Major Tim Peake has been selected to fly a five-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015.

Tim Peake, from Salisbury in Wiltshire, was chosen for astronaut training in 2009 from 8,400 applicants. Since then he has been undergoing training in a number of locations around the world including Köln in Germany, Star City in Russia and Houston in Texas. He had previously served in the army for 18 years primarily flying Apache helicopters and has seen active service in Afghanistan.

The Guardian newspaper says: 41-year-old Peake has been assigned a lengthy stay in orbit in 2015. He will be blasted into space on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan in November that year and flown to the space station where he will stay for five months. He will be able to take part in spacewalks and other complex scientific activities.

Helen Sharman GB1MIR

Helen Sharman GB1MIR

Sarah Brightman

Sarah Brightman

On May 18, 1991 the first UK astronaut Helen Sharman GB1MIR flew to the Mir Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and during her 8 day mission contacted a number of radio amateurs around the world. There have been no other UK astronauts since that epic voyage over 22 years ago.

It had been expected that Sarah Brightman would be the second UK astronaut but it looks as though her mission to the ISS will take place after Tim Peake’s.

Read the Guardian newspaper article at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/may/19/tim-peake-mission-space-station

Helen Sharman GB1MIR https://amsat-uk.org/about/history/first-uk-astronaut-helen-sharman-gb1mir/

Sarah Brightman plans ISS mission https://amsat-uk.org/2012/10/10/sarah-brightman-iss/

2013 UK Space Conference Glasgow July 16-17
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/05/18/2013-uk-space-conference-glasgow-july-16-17/

Free CubeSat Workshop Guildford July 19
https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/cubesat-workshop-2013/

AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium Guildford July 20-21
https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/colloquium-2013/

May 19 2013

AMSAT Fox-1 Ham Radio CubeSat Announcement

Fox-1 CubeSat at the Dayton Hamvention - Image Credit ARRL

AMSAT at the Dayton Hamvention – Image Credit ARRL

NASA announced on May 13, 2013 that AMSAT’s Fox-1 amateur radio spacecraft has been assigned for launch in November 2014 on the ELaNa XII mission. The expected orbit is 470 x 780 km at 64 degrees inclination. This orbit has a lifetime of about 11 years.

AMSAT Vice President Engineering, Tony Monteiro, AA2TX, reported that the software development team successfully brought up the Fox-1 system software on the Internal Housekeeping Unit (IHU). The IHU is the brains of the Fox-1 satellite and it has a 32-bit, STM32L microprocessor. The operating IHU card was shown in the AMSAT Engineering booth at the Dayton Hamvention.

AMSAT FOXThe Fox-1 Engineering Team will deliver the satellite for integration with the launch vehicle during May, 2014 with the launch scheduled for November, 2014. Tony commented, “While this is later than we had hoped, it is well within the normal variance of ELaNa launch dates and the extra time will be most welcome for additional satellite testing. This is very exciting news and really puts the focus on finishing the satellite and ground station software development.”

President Barry Baines says, “AMSAT’s focus on STEM education and development of a CubeSat platform capable of flying a science mission with a reliable communications link resulted in the selection of Fox-1 in the third round and RadFxSat (Fox-1B) in the fourth round of NASA’s Cubesat Launch Initiative.”

All Fox CubeSats are designed to host advanced science payloads to support future science missions that help us to continue qualify for NASA ELaNa (free) launches. The Phase 1 Fox satellites are 1-Unit CubeSats. They each include an analog FM repeater that will allow simple ground stations using an HT and an “arrow” type antenna to make contacts using the satellite. This was the mode made so popular by AO-51. The Phase 1 CubeSats also have the capability of operating in a high-speed digital mode for data communications. Phase 2 Fox satellites will include software-defined-transponders (SDX) like the one tested on ARISSat-1. These will be able to operate in a wide variety of analog and digital communications modes including linear transponders. Since this requires more power for reliable operation, these will probably all be 3-Unit CubeSats.

Source: AMSAT News Service (ANS) http://ww2.amsat.org/?page_id=443

A 1U CubeSat, Fox-1a will serve as a communications relay for radio amateurs worldwide via the onboard FM repeater system. Fox-1a will also carry an experiment consisting of a 3-axis MEMs gyro developed by Penn State University. The communications and experiment missions will run concurrently. An uplink on 435.180 MHz for FM voice and a downlink on 145.980 MHz with FM voice and an optional sub audible FSK digital carrier channel has been coordinated. Fox-1a will employ passive magnetic stabilization.

For more information see http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/symposium/2012/2012_Symposium_Fox_Overview.pdf

Fox-1a is planning to launch from Vandenburg during 2014 on the NASA ElanaXII mission with ARC1, BisonSat, Lightsail and R2S(NEO)

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

May 18 2013

2013 UK Space Conference Glasgow July 16-17

UK-Space-Conference-Logo-2013The 2013 UK Space Conference, which takes place July 16-17 in Glasgow, will focus on realising the UK’s ambitions in space – including making a global impact with science and research, contributing to the UK’s economic growth by developing new commercial applications and businesses and developing the interactions between these activities.

Further details at http://www.intellectuk.org/uk-space-2013-home

Interested in speaking at the UK Space Conference 2013? Soapbox slots available!
http://www.intellectuk.org/speaker-submission

Also taking place the same week is the free CubeSat Workshop at the Surrey Space Centre, Guildford on Friday, July 19 and the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium on Saturday/Sunday, July 20-21.

May 15 2013

MAREA: Ham Radio Robotics

MAREA amateur radio robot - Image credit ARRL

MAREA amateur radio robot – Image credit ARRL

An ARRL article describes the Mars Lander Amateur Radio Robotics Exploration Activity.

NASA has been doing some exciting explorations of Mars with robots, currently Opportunity and Curiosity, which are maneuvered on the Martian surface by remote control.  

These robots collect and analyze soil samples and relay the results of these distant experiments back to Earth. While students can learn about these experiments in newspapers, scientific journals, on the Internet or TV, wouldn’t a more active approach provide a more engaging learning experience? Why not let students experience the same thrills as the NASA scientists and engineers through a simulation that they conduct in their own classrooms?

The basic concept of MAREA uses robotic movement commands that are attached in the text portion of an Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) packet transmission. The APRS packet with the attached commands is sent from a “mission control” school via the terrestrial APRS network or, when possible, even via the Amateur Radio station on the passing International Space Station (ISS), to a “ground station” school. At the ground station school the command packet is received and the command data is linked by UHF radio to the “Mars” robot for execution.

The MAREA system components consist of:
• the typical 2 meter packet capable ham radio transceiver (or receiver if reception only is desired)
• a computer running a free APRS packet display program, sound card TNC (Terminal Node Controller) and serial loopback software packages
• UHF data link transceivers
• an instructional robot

Read the full ARRL article at http://www.arrl.org/marea-ham-radio-robotics

May 14 2013

Fox-1 has a Launch Date!

AMSAT FOX

AMSAT FOX

NASA announced Monday that AMSAT’s Fox-1 FM transponder spacecraft has been assigned a launch in 2014. For details on the launch vehicle, targeted launch date, orbit specifics, and more, please attend the AMSAT Forum and visit the AMSAT booth at the Dayton Hamvention this weekend.  Watch http://www.amsat.org/ and the AMSAT News Service for more details to follow as they become available.

AMSAT’s Fox-1 CubeSat aims to provide these features:

• Fox-1 is designed to operate in sunlight without batteries once the battery system fails. This applies lessons learned from AO-51 and ARISSat-1 operations.

• In case of IHU failure Fox-1 aims to continue to operate its FM repeater in a basic, ‘zombie sat’ mode, so that the repeater remains on-the-air.

• Fox-1 is designed as the immediate replacement for AO-51. Its U/V (Mode B) FM transponder will make it even easier to work with modest equipment.

• From the ground user’s perspective, the same FM amateur radio equipment used for AO-51 may be used for Fox-1.