Tag Archives: CubeSat

May 2 2014

Last chance to register for free CubeSat Workshop

Dr Chris Bridges M6OBC / M0GKK and STRaND-1

Dr Chris Bridges M6OBC and STRaND-1

The free UK CubeSat Workshop, taking place Tuesday, May 13, 2014, will include presentations on the amateur radio satellites FUNcube-1 and UKube-1. Registration closes on May 7.

The workshop will take place at the Satellite Applications Catapult, Electron Building, Fermi Avenue, Harwell OX11 0QR.

Twenty eight Flock 1 CubeSats from Planet Labs Inc. were successfully deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) in February. Planet Labs UK Manager Matt Waldram will give a presentation FLOCK 1: Commercialising CubeSat Applications.

Graham Shirville G3VZV will be giving a presentation on FUNcube-1 titled CubeSats as Educational Tools and there will be a live demo of FUNcube-1 telemetry being received from space.

Steve Greenland of Clyde Space receives the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-2 boards that will be incorporated into UKube-1

Steve Greenland of Clyde Space receiving the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-2 boards for UKube-1

Chris Bridges M6OBC will cover the Recommendations & Progression from the 2013 UK CubeSat Workshop while Steve Greenland will talk about the UK Space Agency’s first CubeSat UKube-1. This is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2014 and carries a 435/145 MHz linear transponder.

The workshop will also feature a tour of the SatCatapult Mission Operations Centre.

Don’t miss out on this premier CubeSat event, register at http://www.cubesatforum.org.uk/wordpress/2014-uk-cubesat-workshop/

uk-space-agency-logo-rgb-121v2.ashxIf you are interested in PocketQubes, CubeSats or Nanosats why not register on the UK CubeSat Forum. Note: you don’t have to be based in the UK to register. http://www.cubesatforum.org.uk/

UK CubeSat Forum established https://amsat-uk.org/2013/12/19/announcing-the-uk-cubesat-forum/

Satellite Applications Catapult https://sa.catapult.org.uk/

Apr 30 2014

LituanicaSAT-1 FM transponder active May 1

LituanicaSAT-1 Camera and FM Voice Transponder

LituanicaSAT-1 Camera and FM Voice Transponder

The LituanicaSAT-1 team have provide a further update on upcoming operation of the CubeSat’s FM transponder.

LituanicaSAT-1

LituanicaSAT-1

Dear amateur radio operators,

The LituanicaSAT-1 FM transponder is scheduled to be operative again on May 1, from 9:30 UT to 14:00 UT.

Satellite’s ground control station in Vilnius will be monitoring the transponder’s frequency and attempt to call CQ with the amateur call sign LY5N (LituanicaSAT-1 callsign) when the satellite will be in sight of the ground station. The expected time windows are:

* 2014/05/01 10:46:22 UT – 2014/05/01 10:56:24 UT
* 2014/05/01 12:21:48 UT – 2014/05/01 12:31:47 UT

LituanicaSAT-1 FrequenciesAll QSO’s with the call LY5N will be granted special QSL cards, signed by the LituanicaSAT-1 core team members and sent out via bureau (no directs).

Every amateur working the FM repeater is encouraged (but not obligated) to RX and answer only the LY5N CQ call during the above time windows.

73,
LituanicaSAT-1 team

Frequency are approximately 435.1755 MHz for the downlink and 145.950 MHz for the uplink (+/- Doppler Shift).

FM transponder operating techniques http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=44412

Lithuanian CubeSat LituanicaSAT-1 https://amsat-uk.org/2014/02/27/lituanicasat-1-cubesat/

Apr 29 2014

KickSat Sprites – Final Preparation

KickSat Sprite satellites deployed - Image by Ben Bishop VK2FBRB

KickSat Sprite satellites deployed – Image by Ben Bishop VK2FBRB

The British Interplanetary Society (BIS) are holding a meeting to prepare for reception of their fleet of Sprite satellites which will be deployed by the KickSat CubeSat on May 4 at 2000 UT.

437 MHz Sprite

437 MHz Sprite

Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting which takes place from 10 am to 4:30 pm on Saturday, May 3 at 27/29 South Lambeth Road, Vauxhall, London, SW8 1SZ.

The BIS events page says:

Dragon X has successfully deployed the KickSat CubeSat carrying 104 Sprites, a fleet of which were funded by the BIS and BIS members!

KickSat deploying Sprite satellites - Image by Ben Bishop VK2FBRB

KickSat deploying Sprite satellites – Image by Ben Bishop VK2FBRB

In preparation for the timed deployment of the Sprites from the CubeSat, the BIS KickSat team will meet at the BIS HQ with two goals:
• Ensure everyone with a ground station has a working installation of GNURadio
• Have some practice tracking other satellites

Present on the day will be radio experts, software experts, and a range of software defined radios and antenna.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Bring a laptop if you want help installing GNURadio.

Source http://www.bis-space.com/2014/04/20/12638/kicksat-final-preparation

Andrew Vaudin of the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) gave a presentation on the BIS Kicksat Sprite satellite to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium on Sunday, July 21, 2013. You can watch the video of his presentation at http://www.batc.tv/streams/amsat1310
or download it direct to your PC at http://www.batc.tv/vod/kicksat.flv

In this video Ben Bishop VK2FBRB shows what the deployment may look like

British Interplanetary Society: Sprite Technical Summary
http://www.bis-space.com/2013/03/09/9301/kicksat-technical-summary

KickSat Sprite Ground Station by Andy Thomas G0SFJ
http://kicksat.wordpress.com/support/kicksat-ground-station/

Kicksat Wiki https://github.com/zacinaction/kicksat/wiki

KickSat mailing list https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/kicksat-gs

Kicksat Updates
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zacinaction/kicksat-your-personal-spacecraft-in-space/posts

KickSat Sprites – Radio Competition https://amsat-uk.org/2014/04/10/kicksat-sprites-radio-competition/

Apr 27 2014

BRICsat to carry 28 MHz PSK31 transponder

28 MHz PSK31 Receiver Board Flight Prototype - Brno University of Technology

28 MHz PSK31 Receiver Board Flight Prototype – Brno University of Technology

BRICsat is a 3U CubeSat built by students at the US Naval Academy.

It has two Amateur Satellite Missions:
• APRS constellation transponder with downlink on 437.975 MHz and with uplink on 145.825 MHz 1k2 and 9k6 AX25
• PSK31 transponder with a 28.120 MHz uplink (2.5 kHz bandwidth) and a UHF FM downlink

BRICsat is planned to launch with Psat-A and Psat-B.

Read the paper Communication and Data Handling System for BRICsat Satellite by Tomáš Urbanec, Petr Vágner, Miroslav Kasal and Ondřej Baran, of the Department of Radio Electronics Brno University of Technology http://www.aprs.org/PSK31/Brno-PSK31_2-PID2722925.pdf

IARU amateur satellite frequency coordination panel http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru

Apr 25 2014

UK CubeSat Workshop: Student Research Pitches

FUNcube Dongle Pro+ Software Defined Radio

FUNcube Dongle Pro+ Software Defined Radio

AMSAT-UK have donated a FUNcube Dongle SDR to be awarded to the best student research pitch at the UK CubeSat workshop to be held in Harwell on May 13.

Please send your 5 minute research pitches along with the following details to send to Chris Bridges M6OBC email:  c.p.bridges@surrey.ac.uk There will be a prize for best presentations on the day! The prize includes a UK Space Agency goody-bag including a mug, t-shirt, badges, and more.  Plus a FUNcube Dongle, kindly donated from AMSAT-UK.

Please include the following to your submission:

• Presentation Title
• Author/ Supervisor
• Affiliation
• 5 Bullet Points on the Presentation Content (what, why, who cares?).

Presenters will be notified on 10th May 2014.

Source: http://www.cubesatforum.org.uk/wordpress/2014-uk-cubesat-workshop/student-research-pitches/

2014 UK CubeSat Workshop – Free Registration
http://www.cubesatforum.org.uk/wordpress/2014-uk-cubesat-workshop/

FUNcube Yahoo Group https://amsat-uk.org/funcube/yahoo-group/

FUNcube Dongle Pro+ SDR Yahoo Group https://amsat-uk.org/funcube/funcube-dongle-sdr/

Apr 23 2014

The Basement Satellite at Canadian Documentary Film Festival

The Basement Satellite posterThe first screening of the The Basement Satellite at the Canadian International Documentary Film Festival takes place on Friday, April 25.

The film, directed by Hyoung-ju Kim, tells the struggle of Korean artist Hojun Song DS1SBO to develop a satellite, OSSI-1, in his basement studio and launch it into space.

Synopsis from Indiewire.com – In his Mangwon-dong basement art studio, a media artist Hojun Song dreams of making a satellite and shooting it out to space.

He wants to make his dream real through OSSI (Open Source Satellite Initiative) movement. He tries to build a DIY satellite, and to sell 10,000 T-shirts for the 100 million Won ($100,000) budget. His seemingly reckless and utterly ambitious project begins. Would his dream become real?

Watch Hot Docs Trailers 2014: the Basement satellite

Canadian International Documentary Film Festival – The Basement Satellite
http://boxoffice.hotdocs.ca/WebSales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=22727~446634ba-e848-4237-9b3c-72aceddb5263&epguid=b314c44a-eed5-4434-9c2c-cc86c0bf61ee&

OSSI-1 Amateur Radio CubeSat Launched
https://amsat-uk.org/2013/04/19/ossi-1-amateur-radio-cubesat-launched/