Tag Archives: Amateur Radio

May 16 2012

Live Coverage of HORYU-II Launch May 17

Amateur Radio Satellite HORYU-2

The launch of amateur radio satellite HORYU-2 on Thursday, May 17 at 1639 UT will be broadcast live on the Internet. On the same launch will be the JAXA climate observation satellite SHIZUKU (GCOM-W).

The launch broadcast will commence at 1610 UT and can be seen at http://www.jaxa.jp/countdown/f21/live/index_e.html

Built by students at the Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT) HORYU-2 is 350 * 310 * 315 mm and mass is 7.1 kg. It will be launched into a Sun-Synchronous 680 km orbit with an inclination of 98.2°.

The satellite’s callsign is JG6YBW and radio amateurs are asked to listen for the 437.375 MHz  (+/- 9 kHz Doppler shift) telemetry downlink that will be using 20 wpm Morse Code or 1200 bps AX.25 FSK packet radio. Details of the telemetry format are available here.

There will be a monthly competition for radio amateurs and listeners who send data received from the telemetry to the KIT server, via the HORYU-2 telemetry analysis software, details here.

The HORYU-2 telemetry software can be downloaded from here and an explanation of the software is here.

Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLEs / KEPS) for new satellites launched in past 30 days
http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt

Amateur satellite Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLEs / KEPS) http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/amateur.txt

Among the experiments to be carried out on HORYU-2 are:

HORYU-2 discharge suppression solar cell side

300V power generation in LEO
In recent years, satellite size and power keep increasing. For large space platforms such as a space station, it is necessary to generate and transmit the power at a high voltage to minimize the Joule heating loss or the increase in the cable mass. It has been known that in LEO a solar array with a negative potential of 100 to 200V with respect to the plasma can suffer electrostatic discharge. Because of this, ISS power system was limited to 160V generation and 120V transmission. Generally speaking the transmission power is proportional to the square of the voltage. For a large space platform which requires 1MW-class power, such as a space hotel or a space factory, power generation at a voltage of 300 to 400V is required. The present HORYU-2 mission, 300V power generation in space without any discharge, is the first space environment test of the new technology that will be strongly demanded in near future. Also, as the satellite power employs higher voltage, there will be more demand for spacecraft charging mitigation.

Horyu-2 Structural Thermal Model

Horyu-2 Structural Thermal Model

Demonstration of COTS surface potential meter in space (Trek)
This mission demonstrates a surface potential meter in space. The potential meter has been developed by TREK, Inc. aiming for terrestrial commercial application. It is a contact type potential meter with extremely large input impedance so that the contact does not affect the charging state of the specimen. KIT is currently working with TREK, Inc. to convert the potential meter for extreme environments such as space or plasma processing chamber. The in-orbit demonstration is a part of the joint research program. To put the COTS device on HORYU-2, the electronics board and the consumed power have been reduced significantly.

When HORYU-2 passes through the aurora zone, differential charging may develop between the insulator surface and the satellite chassis. The potential meter will measure the potential of the insulator that is the same material to be used for SCM. The two measurements are compared to validate against each other.

Debris observation with debris sensor
This mission aims at detecting the micro-debris impact on the surface of HORYU-2. Space debris has become a serious threat to satellites in orbit. Observation of micro debris less than 1mm has been very difficult. The debris sensor consists of many conductive thin wired laid down in parallel in the area of 8×8 cm. Upon impact, some of the lines are cut and the resistance becomes infinite.

Taking photographs of the Earth
HORYU-2 aims to take pictures of the Earth using a small CMOS camera. The camera is called SCAMP (Surrey Camera Payload) and was developed by the University of Surrey, a sister university of KIT. SCAMP takes a JPEG format picture of 640×480 pixels. From 700km altitude, one pixel corresponds to 1.6km.

HORYU-2 Launch Information http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/Documents/information_launch_english.html

English language version of HORYU website http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/index_e_new.html

Japanese HORYU website in Google English http://tinyurl.com/HoryuSatellite

KIT HORYU Blog in Google English http://tinyurl.com/HORYU-Blog

Development of High Voltage Technology Demonstration Satellite, HORYU-2
http://kitsat.ele.kyutech.ac.jp/Documents/Nano-satellite-symposium-Final-paper_nishimura.pdf

KIT HORYU-2 Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/277436165678985/

HORYU-2 Japanese Operating Schedule http://tinyurl.com/HORYU-2-Schedule

HORYU-2 Telemetry Competition http://www.uk.amsat.org/7474

HORYU-2 CW Telemetry Decoder by DK3WN http://tinyurl.com/SatSoftwareDK3WN/

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

MixW http://mixw.net/

UZ7HO Packet Radio Soundmodem http://wa8lmf.net/miscinfo

AGWPE Soundcard packet download page http://www.sv2agw.com/downloads/

Sound Card Packet Guide by Ralph Milnes KC2RLM
http://www.kc2rlm.info/soundcardpacket/

Sound card Interface http://www.southgatearc.org/articles/g0ftd/data_dummy_interface.htm

UISS Windows AX.25 Packet Software http://users.belgacom.net/hamradio/uiss.htm

DK3WN satellite decode software http://tinyurl.com/SatSoftwareDK3WN/

May 15 2012

Metro Newspaper – The next space age: Cuberty

The May 14, 2012 edition of the Metro newspaper carried a story by Ben Gilliland on pages 26-27 about CubeSats. Among those mentioned is the UK amateur radio Android smartphone CubeSat STRaND-1 which is being built by volunteers at the Surrey Space Centre (SSC).

The online edition of the Metro newspaper can be read at http://e-edition.metro.co.uk/2012/05/14/ You will be prompted for an email address but anything that looks like an email address will keep the prompt happy and you can then read the newspaper.

Ben Gilliland’s article is also available on the CosmOnline website at
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/blog/2012/05/14/next-space-age-cuberty

You can read about STRaND-1 in the AMSAT-UK publication OSCAR News here

STRaND-1 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nanosats

May 13 2012

Student's Project Could Go Into Space

Go Erie reports on the work of students from Penn State Behrend who have been building part of a satellite for AMSAT.

The report says:

The trio speaks the language of supercapacitors and charges cycles, and they offer informed views on how circuit boards can shed excess heat.

When David Jesberger, Kathleen Nicholas and Jacob Sherk graduated May 4 from Penn State Behrend, they left speaking the language of engineers. But they also left behind a finished senior project that could soon be headed into outer space.

Senior engineering students at Behrend pitch ideas each year for projects they would like to tackle in their final year. Nicholas said she, Jesberger and Sherk all bid for a chance to be part of a project for the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT).

The super-capacitor based energy storage device developed by the students is designed to replace the silver–zinc battery on ARISSat type satellites.

Read the full story by Jim Martin at
http://www.goerie.com/article/20120512/NEWS02/305129968/Behrend-engineers%27-project-could-go-into-space

May 13 2012

Student’s Project Could Go Into Space

Go Erie reports on the work of students from Penn State Behrend who have been building part of a satellite for AMSAT.

The report says:

The trio speaks the language of supercapacitors and charges cycles, and they offer informed views on how circuit boards can shed excess heat.

When David Jesberger, Kathleen Nicholas and Jacob Sherk graduated May 4 from Penn State Behrend, they left speaking the language of engineers. But they also left behind a finished senior project that could soon be headed into outer space.

Senior engineering students at Behrend pitch ideas each year for projects they would like to tackle in their final year. Nicholas said she, Jesberger and Sherk all bid for a chance to be part of a project for the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT).

The super-capacitor based energy storage device developed by the students is designed to replace the silver–zinc battery on ARISSat type satellites.

Read the full story by Jim Martin at
http://www.goerie.com/article/20120512/NEWS02/305129968/Behrend-engineers%27-project-could-go-into-space

May 12 2012

Aalto-1 Mission Animation

Finnish students working on the Aalto-1 CubeSat

Finnish students working on the Aalto-1 CubeSat

Students working on the Aalto-1 CubeSat have released two new videos. In the first video Systems Engineer Antti Kestilä gives a brief introduction to the amateur radio VHF/UHF ground station on the roof of ELEC building at Aalto University Otaniemi campus.

The second video is an animation showing most of the Aalto-1 mission phases.

Aalto-1 is a student satellite project of Aalto University, Finland. When launched, it will be Finland’s first satellite. It is planned to operate at VHF-UHF and there will also be an S-band transmitter. Up to 8 watts of power will be available from the solar panels.

The main payload of the satellite is a novel tiny Fabry-Perot imaging spectrometer, developed by VTT, Finland. The primary scientific goal of the mission is to demonstrate the feasibility of MEMS Fabry-Perot spectrometers for space applications. This miniature technology can be used in nanosatellites for large a variety of remote sensing applications in the future.

High spectral resolution images can be used for water quality monitoring and land use classification.

Watch Aalto-1 // Quick Look on Ground Station

Watch Aalto-1 // Mission Loop for MoA

Aalto-1 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aalto-1/122101441174192

Aalto-1 Discussion Forum https://wiki.aalto.fi/display/SatForum/Aalto-1+Discussion+Forum

Aalto-1 https://wiki.aalto.fi/display/SuomiSAT/Summary

May 12 2012

How a Pocket-Size Satellite Could Find Another Earth

Radio Amateur Sara Seager KB1WTW - Image Credit PlanetQuest

Time Magazine reports that unlike the massive NASA Kepler probe the next mission to search for new planets will be a tiny CubeSat called ExoplanetSat.

Sara Seager KB1WTW with ExoplanetSat

Sara Seager KB1WTW with model of ExoplanetSat - Image Credit MIT

Time says: What makes ExoplanetSat even more un-NASA-like is that it began as a class project — although admittedly, the class was at MIT. It was a design-and-build course, which the university’s engineering students have to take in order to graduate. In a recent semester, the class was co-taught by Sara Seager [KB1WTW] an astrophysicist who has done groundbreaking research studying how the atmospheres of planets orbiting distant stars might look like from earthly telescopes. Seager recruited five science undergrads to join her engineers, on the theory that out in the real world, they’d eventually have to work with engineers anyway.

The group lead by Sara KB1WTW is developing a prototype ExoplanetSat capable of monitoring a single, bright, sun-like star for two years. Planned to launch late 2012 or 2013 it is hoped it will open the gates for ExoplanetSat interest and funding. Once the funding doors are opened, then the fleet of ExoplanetSats can be launched. The fleet may contain as many as a hundred of these small satellites, each focused on its own star.

In a 2011 visit to Cambridge, UK, Sara said “The reason why we’re excited is because we think that this is a really huge thing. Hundreds and thousands of years from now, people will look back and ask, what are the significant accomplishments of our society in the early twenty-first century? One of them will be that we were the first to discover other worlds and other worlds that might be like Earth. When you think back four hundred years, what do you remember? You think about Christopher Columbus and Lewis and Clark. It’s the exploration—finding things that were new to our culture. And that’s why we’re excited.”

Read the Times Magazine article at http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2114158,00.html

MIT paper on ExoplanetSat http://dspace.mit.edu/openaccess-disseminate/1721.1/61644

Presentation Slides http://mstl.atl.calpoly.edu/~bklofas/Presentations/DevelopersWorkshop2011/5_Smith_ExoplanetSat.pdf

PlanetQuest http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/