The amateur radio satellite Tethersat is a 3U CubeSat that splits into two joined by a 1 km tether to test electrodynamic tether propulsion.
Both spacecraft will use 9600 bps AX25 GFSK packet downlinks on UHF. A launch is planned on ORS-3 in July 2013 from the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.
Electrodynamic tether propulsion propulsion has the potential to make space travel significantly cheaper. It is a simplified, very low-budget magnetic sail. It can be used either to accelerate or brake an orbiting spacecraft. When direct current is pumped through the tether, it exerts a Lorentz force against the magnetic field, and the tether accelerates the spacecraft.
Potentially this technique could be used to raise the orbit of a satellite from 600 to 1000 km using a Ward Spiral maneuver. See the 2009 paper Tethered Satellite Dynamics, Mission Design and Applications by Chadwick Healy http://ccar.colorado.edu/asen5050/projects/projects_2009/healy/
FSpace team members Phạm Quang Hưng, Đinh Quốc Trí, Khánh Has, Thu Trong Vu XV9AA, Hong Thai Pham and Dao Thang – picture taken by Nguyễn Trần Hoàng
The amateur radio F-1 CubeSat, built by the FSpace team of young engineers and students at the FPT University, is on its journey to the International Space Station (ISS). It is the first satellite to be built in Vietnam and the project has attracted much TV news coverage.
FSpace F-1 Amateur Radio CubeSat
F-1 carries a low-resolution C328 camera for an earth observation mission. The camera is capable of a maximum resolution of 640 by 480 pixels with 8 bit color. Images will be downloaded when commanded by the FSpace ground station.
There is a 3-axis magnetometer (developed by Angstrom Space Technology Center, Uppsala University, Sweden) and several temperature sensors.
The satellite’s callsign is XV1VN and the communications subsystem is built around two Yaesu VX-3R amateur radio handheld transceivers. One will operate on UHF the other on VHF.
Yaesu VX-3R1 transmits on 437.485 MHz FM, it has no battery so will operate on solar power only. As a result it will only be active when the satellite is in sunlight and when active the output power will vary between 0.1 and 0.3 watts depending on the amount of illumination. The antenna is a half-wave dipole. The FM beacon will send Morse code at 10 words per minute every 30 seconds (configurable). A sample of the beacon can be heard here.
VX-3R2 operates on 145.980 MHz FM and is connected to Lithium-Polymer (LiPo) batteries so will operate in both dark and sunlight. The power output is 1 watt into a half-wave dipole antenna. Using a TinyTrak4 packet radio modem it will send an AFSK 1200 bps AX.25 packet every 60 seconds (configurable).
F-1 was launched along with four other CubeSats in the HTV-3 cargo vessel on an H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, on July 21 at 02:06 UT and will arrive at the ISS on July 27.
F-1 in the JEM-Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD)
It will remain on the ISS until September when it will be deployed by Japanese astronaut and radio amateur Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI using the ISS Kibo robot arm.
F-1 is mounted in a JEM-Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) with the amateur radio TechEdSat and FITSat-1 CubeSats. In a second deployment pod are WeWish and a scientific 2U CubeSat Raiko. The CubeSats will be deployed into a 400 km orbit and should have a lifetime of 3 or 4 months before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere and burning up.
In this video the team from FPT University sing the song “Vietnam’s orbit”. Artist/singer Trương Quý Hải has supported the F-1 CubeSat project from the beginning and composed the song just a few weeks before the launch. The accompanying music clip was completed just hours before the launch of F1. The team very much appreciated this.
Watch Quỹ đạo Việt Nam – Trương Quý Hải – “Vietnam’s Orbit” by Trương Quý Hải
A video depicting the planned deployment of the F-1 CubeSat, callsign XV1VN, from the ISS can be seen at http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=8446
+ F-1 http://fspace.edu.vn/?page_id=10
On-board camera for earth observation mission
Yaesu VX-3R 1, 437.485 MHz FM downlink:
o Solar cell power only, operates in sunlight only
o Output power: between 0.1W and 0.3W depending on illumination, half-wave dipole antenna
o Morse code beacon (10 chars) using FM CW every 30 seconds, listen here
Yaesu VX-3R 2, 145.980 MHz FM downlink:
o Rechargeable battery, operates in dark and sunlight
o Output power: max 1.0W, half-wave dipole antenna
o AFSK 1200bps, half duplex, one AX.25 packet every 60 seconds
+ FITSat 1 http://www.fit.ac.jp/~tanaka/fitsat.shtml
High-speed data test, high power LED visual tracking
CW Beacon 437.250 MHz,
FM Data 437.445 MHz,
High speed data 5840.00 MHz.
This movie shows the integration of the amateur radio First-Move CubeSat compressed to 5 minutes. The video was made using a DSLR Camera shooting 1 picture every 10 seconds.
Integrated First-MOVE
First-MOVE is an amateur radio CubeSat being built by students at the Technical University of München. It will be transported to the launch provider in the Netherlands in the second half of September. The launch on a Dnepr is planned for the end of November, 2013.
MOVE stands for München Orbital Verification Experiment. The 1U CubeSat carries a CCD camera and has two deployable solar panels carrying a new generation of solar cell – triple junction GaAs / Ge.
The First-MOVE transceiver, was supplied by ISIS and uses a UHF uplink and VHF downlink. The antennas are mounted on the ends of the deployable solar panels.
The frequencies for First-MOVE were coordinated by the IARU as:
Downlink: 145.970 MHz
Uplink: 435.520 MHz
The UAHuntsville Space Hardware Club is a University of Alabama in Huntsville student organization. They conceptualize, design, build, test and fly flight hardware for high altitude balloons, the CubeSat platform, and the CanSat competition.
The aims of their ChargerSat-1 CubeSat are:
– Improve communications for picosatellite operations
– Demonstrate passive nadir axis stabilization for picosatellite attitude control
– Improve solar power collection for picosatellite operations
In this video Angela Yi shows her work on the CubeSat.
The HTV-3 cargo vessel carrying five CubeSats blasted off on an H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center on Saturday, July 21 at 02:06 UT on its way to the International Space Station (ISS).
On July 27 it is scheduled to arrive at the ISS where it will be grappled by the Expedition 32 crew using the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm and attached to the forward end of the Harmony module to begin a stay of just under a month.
Onboard are four amateur radio CubeSats, F-1, We-Wish, FitSat-1 and TechEdSat along with a scientific CubeSat Raiko.
The CubeSats will remain on the ISS until the first week in September when they will be deployed by Japanese astronaut and radio amateur Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI using the ISS Kibo robot arm.
The F-1 CubeSat carries a pair of Yaesu VX-3R handheld transceivers to provide communications on 145.980 MHz and 437.485 MHz FM using AX.25 packet radio data.
FITSAT-1 will carry an Optical Communications experiment that aims to write Morse Code across the night sky, although only when in range of Japan. It will also transmit CW on 437.250 MHz, FM AX.25 data on 437.445 MHz and high speed data on 5840.00 MHz.
We-Wish will transmit on 437.505 MHz FM AX.25 data.
TechEdSat will transmit on 437.465 MHz and will also communicate via the Iridium and Orbcomm satellite phone networks, a first for a CubeSat.
Ali Guarneros Luna KJ6TVO – Image credit NASA Ames
Radio amateur Ali Guarneros Luna KJ6TVO features in an SJSU Today article.
She is part of an SJSU student team that worked on the cube satellite TechEdSat, one of five CubeSats being transported to the International Space Station.
Ali was born in Mexico City and now lives in San Jose, California. She received her BS in Aerospace Engineering at San Jose State University in 2010 and completes her MS in Aerospace Engineering from San Jose State University in 2012.
She currently works with the Edison Program, Small Spacecraft Payload and Technologies (SSPT) and SPHERES National Lab at NASA Ames Research Center. Under the Edison Program, Ali works on development of CubeSat projects, including TechEdSat, as the System Engineering, Mission And Ground Operations, and Launch Vehicle Service expert.
AMSAT-UK 
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