University of Tsukuba ITF-1 (YUI) CubeSat

Students at the University of Tsukuba are working on the ITF-1 (YUI) CubeSat project that is planned to be launched on a H-IIA rocket in the fiscal year 2013. The orbit will be 400 by 350km with an inclination of 65 degrees.

The formal name ITF-1 comes from the initial letter of the university slogan “Imagine The Future”.  The satellite also has a popular name YUI which means “bond” in Japanese, it came from the project’s concept‚ “Creating the Worldwide Human Community”.

The 435MHz satellite beacon will send telemetry by a Morse Code audio tone on an FM transmitter running 300 milliwats output. It should be possible to receive it using simple equipment such as a handheld transceiver or scanner. Telemetry information will be first compressed into binary data  and then cut into 5 bits and converted into 10 – 15 Morse codes.

Ayano Okamura ITF-1 Project Manager

Reception reports will be acknowledged with a certificate and the telemetry will be made available on the web.

The UTF-1 Project Manager is Ayano Okamura and you can read her blog at http://tinyurl.com/ITF-1-ProjectManagerBlog

The Chief Tech blog by Asai Eisuke is at http://tinyurl.com/ITF-1-TechBlog

ITF-1 (YUI) on the IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination pages http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/formal_detail.php?serialnum=226

ITF-1 website in Google English http://tinyurl.com/CubeSat-ITF-1