Tag Archives: CubeSat

Dec 23 2013

FUNcube-1 High Resolution Graphs Available

Sun Sensors

Sun Sensors

Total Photo Current

Total Photo Current

There is now a facility to view the latest FUNcube-1 (AO-73) High Resolution Data uploaded to the Data Warehouse. The link can be found in the Navigation Bar on the warehouse.

Following on from this will be making Hi-Res data available to download via .csv files, in a similar way we do for Whole Orbit Data. Watch this space.

Seasons Greetings
Dave, G4DPZ

Battery Volts

Battery Volts

Dashboard App – Telemetry Decoder
http://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/

Data Warehouse – Telemetry Archive
http://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/

Satellite Tracking Apps
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/satellite-tracking/

Dec 23 2013

FUNcube-1: One Month in Space

FUNcube-1 flight model - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 flight model – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

The FUNcube-1 (AO-73) spacecraft has now been in orbit and fully operational for one month.

We are very happy and VERY grateful to all the stations who have committed their time and effort into regularly receiving the telemetry and uploading it to our Data Warehouse. We really want to say a BIG THANK YOU and please keep it coming.

Dave G4DPZ is still busy refining the operation of the Warehouse and is promising more features over the next few days/weeks. Further updates to the Dashboard are also expected soon.

If anyone knows of potential additional stations that could be established in some of the remoter parts of the globe we would be grateful to have your ideas and introductions. “Simple” stations with omnidirectional antennas,  dongles and internet connected laptops would be all that is needed.

AMSAT-UK FUNcube Mission Patch Rev4 20100609

AMSAT-UK FUNcube Mission Patch

We intend to keep the present operating schedule in place for the time being whilst various on board parameters continue to be characterized by the team.

The present low internal temperatures being experienced by the spacecraft, at least in the northern hemisphere, are causing some frequency shifting to take place – especially on the uplink frequencies – roll on summer!

We are not yet 100% certain that Object 2013-066AE is FUNcube-1 but it is looking the most likely candidate.

As the launch was more than 30 days ago, the record for this object has now moved to the http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/cubesat.txt file and the object is now referred to as DNEPR OBJECT AE.

The http://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/latest-two-line-elements/ page has been updated to match.

73! de the FUNcube team

Dec 21 2013

Brazilian contact via FUNcube-1 (AO-73)

FUNcube-1 flight model - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 flight model – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

Paulo PV8DX and Luciano PY5LF have made the first contact using the amateur radio FUNcube-1 AO-73 satellite between the North and the South of Brazil.

Watch AO73 – HAM CUBESAT

Dec 21 2013

Former radio ham plans Bitcoin CubeSat

A CubeSat in Space

Archive image of a 1U CubeSat in Space

Former radio amateur Jeff Garzik ex-KB4UZB plans to develop a CubeSat BitSat to distribute block chain data for the digital currency Bitcoin.

Jeff’s amateur radio license expired in 2006 and in recent years during his spare time he has been a Bitcoin core-developer, contributing to the core Bitcoin protocol.

He says that a satellite node could help defend the Bitcoin network from a Sibyl attack, which is where malicious computers flood a node on the peer-to-peer network with bad data.

It is reported that so far he has raised 37 Bitcoins (about $32,000) in funding for the project.

Read the Wired Magazine article Bitcoins in Space: Hacker to Fire Digital Currency Into Orbit
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/12/bitcoin_space/

Read the Bitcoins in space! thread at
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=334701.0

BitPay Hires Bitcoin Core-Developer Jeff Garzik
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130514006754/en/BitPay-Hires-Bitcoin-Core-Developer-Jeff-Garzik

Explanation of Bitcoin in PC-PRO Magazine
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/384190/how-to-earn-spend-and-mine-bitcoins

UPDATE Feb 5, 2014 https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZHVudmVnYW5zcGFjZS5jb218ZHVudmVnYW4tc3BhY2Utc3lzdGVtcy1pbmN8Z3g6MWJjYzAyZDY0NTdlMmQ0MA

Dec 19 2013

Book publisher wants to launch CubeSat

Image used by Mikazuki Publishing House on their YouTube video

Image used by Mikazuki Publishing House on their YouTube video

A publisher of printed paper books, Mikazuki Publishing House, has issued a press release saying they will be launching a 3U CubeSat in August 2014 that would have both voice and data uplinks and downlinks. They intend to use the CubeSat for a single book marketing campaign.

The company’s press release reads:

(Mikazuki Publishing News) Dec 18th, 2013 – Mikazuki Publishing House, an international book publisher, has announced that it will be launching a nano-satellite in August 2014 using the CubeSat 3U format.

NASA’s CubeSat Launch initiative (CSLI) provides opportunities for small satellite payloads to fly on rockets planned for upcoming launches. These CubeSats are flown as auxiliary payloads on previously planned missions. Nano-satellites weighing less than one pound, have become the standard as a miniature communications platform. The cost is approximately $30,000, covering launch, operation, and maintenance. The satellite will enter low earth orbit and is set to be used for a single book marketing campaign, after which the satellite will drift back to Earth after 3 months.

Kambiz Mostofizadeh the CEO of Mikazuki Publishing House said “Why would a book publisher want its own communications satellite?

It will be able to transmit data and voice up and down, so it is a perfect marketing tool for creating a temporary radio station or a temporary television station. The satellite will also come with a graphic user interface designed to allow our publishing staff without satellite operating experience to make the most of its capabilities.”

The Mikazuki X12 Satellite is set to launch in August 2014. For more information visit http://www.MikazukiPublishingHouse.com/

No additional information about the CubeSat has been seen on that website yet.

Mikazuki Publishing House on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bookspublishers

Mikazuki Publishing House YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHZWdNzIc-k

A list of selections for NASA’s CubeSat Launch initiative (CSLI) can be seen at
http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/home/CSLI_selections.html

It covers satellites planned to be launched during 2014 and 2015 but at the time of writing Mikazuki X12 had not been spotted.

At the beginning of December Amazon announced it was testing drones for deliveries. That announcement gave Amazon free publicity on TV stations around the world.

Dec 19 2013

Join AMSAT-UK

AMSAT-UK_Bevelled_LogoFounded in 1975 AMSAT-UK is a voluntary organisation that supports the design and building of equipment for Amateur Radio Satellites.

AMSAT-UK initially produced a short bulletin called OSCAR News to give members advice on amateur satellite communications. Since those early days OSCAR News has grown in size and the print quality has improved beyond recognition. Today, OSCAR News is produced as a high-quality quarterly colour A4 magazine consisting of up to 40 pages of news, information and comment about amateur radio space communications.

The new lower-cost E-membership provides OSCAR News as a downloadable PDF file giving members the freedom to read it on their Tablets or Smartphones anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

An additional advantage is that the PDF should be available for download up to 2 weeks before the paper copy is posted.

AMSAT-UK FUNcube Mission Patch Rev4 20100609

AMSAT-UK FUNcube Mission Patch

The Membership year lasts for 12 months starting on January 1 each year.

If you join after July 31 of any particular year, then you will receive complimentary membership for the whole of the following year, i.e. join on November 12, 2013, and you have nothing more to pay until Dec 31, 2014.

Now is a very good time to join.

Take out an Electronic membership here http://shop.amsat.org.uk/shop/category_9/Join-Amsat-UK.html

E-members can download their copies of OSCAR News from http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/on

A sample issue of OSCAR News can be downloaded here.