Tag Archives: CubeSat

Dec 19 2013

Delfi-n3Xt Update December 19

Delfi-n3Xt Satellite

Delfi-n3Xt Satellite

Delfi Nanosatellite Program Manager, Jasper Bouwmeester PC4JB, provides this update on the Delfi-n3Xt amateur radio satellite which was launched November 21 and carries a 435/145 MHz linear transponder.

Dear radio amateurs,

Today, December 19, we have switched from the ISIS transmitter (ITRX) to the Primary Transmitter (PTRX). This radio seems to have a significantly stronger signal, so it should be easier to receive telemetry. The frequency is a bit higher, 145.930 MHz so you will have to retune. I hope this will help some of the radio amateurs who had trouble in decoding Delfi-n3Xt.

We have also put the S-band transmitter (STX) back in beacon mode on 2405.000 MHz. As the onboard patch antenna is however pointing in arbitrary direction, it is a matter of luck if it is pointed towards a ground station. In about 10% of the passes it should in theory be possible to receive the signal with a >2.5m dish, but I have to admit that it is only going to be fun to try to receive the signal for those people who like to be the first and have the proper equipment.

Unfortunately we have not yet been able to make a new update of the DUDe client. The first issue we want to tackle for the new version is the frequency freeze. After a while, DUDe seems to lock itself at an edge of the band. Currently this means, that DUDe needs to be restarted before a pass. As temporary solution in case you want to track the satellite automatically, you may use an auto-mouse clicker to close and re-open DUDe. But I hope we will be able to fix this issue early next year.

Finally, I would like to state that you may replay your SDR recordings a few times to increase packet decoding as our server can handle more load. Our statistics page however currently does not exclude doubles from a single radio amateur, so please keep in mind that the packet counts for the competition (more details early next year) will eventually be corrected for this. It will take a while though before we upgrade the statistics to exclude doubles from a single radio amateur. We are very happy if we receive more telemetry packets, but please don’t exaggerate the amount of replays as there is not much more to be gained after a few attempts.

Have a nice holidays and a prosperous 2014!

73,
Jasper, PC4JB

Telemetry reception http://www.delfispace.nl/operations/delfi-n3xt-telemetry-reception

Delfi-n3Xt http://www.delfispace.nl/operations/radio-amateurs

Dnepr Yasny launch https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/dnepr-november-2013/

Dec 19 2013

Announcing: The UK CubeSat Forum

uk-space-agency-logo-rgb-121v2.ashxAs a result of recommendations from the January 2013 UK CubeSat Workshop, members of the UK CubeSat community have established a forum to provide an independent, community led discussion and networking platform for UK nanosatellite or CubeSat stakeholders.

The organising committee, which the UK Space Agency also sits on, invites all individuals with an interest in nanosatellite or CubeSat activities to read the forum’s Charter and, if interested in becoming an active member, register at http://www.cubesatforum.org.uk/ to participate in the forum.

As well as building stronger links throughout the CubeSat community, the independent forum aims to be the primary interface for the UK Space Agency to seek the community’s views on matters such as Outer Space Act (OSA) reform, and what its future CubeSat initiatives should look like.

UKube-1 on display at UK Space Conference in Glasgow

UKube-1 model on display at UK Space Conference in Glasgow – Credit G3VZV

Best regards
Ryan King
Space Science Assistant Programme Manager

UK SPACE AGENCY
Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1SZ
Tel 01793 41 8090
Mob 07826921986
Web http://www.bis.gov.uk/ukspaceagency
Twitter http://twitter.com/spacegovuk
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/spacegovuk
An executive agency for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit

Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit – Credit Clyde Space

Aspirations following UKube-1

The UK CubeSat Forum are seeking thoughts on the future format of the UK Space Agency CubeSat programme (aka UKube). Specifically, we are interested in thoughts regarding the mission applications, budget, timelines, and competitiveness in the market.

For example, should CubeSats stay within the education and training sphere or should the UK compete with NASA-style missions: e.g. EDSN (a network of CubeSats)?

Can we progress science further for example into MEO or GEO to investigate radiation belts or focus on industrial problems – e.g. cheaper platforms towards real navigation and Earth observation applications like PlanetLabs‘ Flock?

Should the UK implement a similar programme to the NASA CubeSat Initiative where government funds the launch of prebuilt CubeSats? Or should we focus on funding full missions?

Dec 16 2013

CAPE-2 spoke with the voice of Darth Vader!

CAPE-2 CubeSat - University of Louisiana

CAPE-2 CubeSat – University of Louisiana

Roland PY4ZBZ reports that the CAPE-2 amateur radio CubeSat responded to a “Send Text to Speech” command with “Hello P Y 4 Z B Z” in the voice of Darth Vader.

Listen to the recording at
http://tinyurl.com/PY4ZBZ-Cape-2-Darth-Vader

AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB)
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

Dec 15 2013

First image captured by TshepisoSat (ZACUBE-1)

First picture taken by TshepisoSat (ZACUBE-1) - Image Credit CPUT F'SATI

First picture taken by TshepisoSat (ZACUBE-1) – Image Credit CPUT F’SATI

TshepisoSat was built at the French South African Institute of Technology (F’SATI), at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and launched on a Dnepr from Dombarovsky near Yasny on November 21, 2013.

ZACUBE-1, FUNcube-1 and HiNCube in the deployment pod - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

ZACUBE-1, FUNcube-1 and HiNCube in the deployment pod – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

The CPUT-F’SATI blog says:

Earlier this week a quick checkout of the payload board was done. The sub-system board was powered on and a few telemetry values were requested with all response values indicating good health. The board was successfully switched off again.

On the morning of December 14 the satellite was again commanded to switch on the payload board and a sequence of commands were sent to capture an image and store it in the on-board storage. During the following two passes the image was successfully downloaded using the CPUT/F’SATI built VHF/UHF radio transceiver in its 9k6 bps G3RUH/GMSK mode.

CPUT ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat

CPUT ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat

In the image the sun can be seen along with lens flare caused by the camera being pointed towards the sun. The black dot in the bottom right is most likely caused by overload of camera’s CMOS sensor by the sun. The spacecraft is not stabilized in three axis, so capturing images is a best effort affair (imaging is not the main focus of the mission). We can hopefully capture an image showing the earth in the upcoming days.

Original known as ZACube-1, the satellite has been named TshepisoSat, after a competition held for Grade 9 learners. Tshepiso is the seSotho word meaning promise.

ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat HF beacon antenna deployment unit - Image credit CPUT

ZACUBE-1 TshepisoSat HF beacon antenna deployment unit – Image credit CPUT

The launch was the culmination of five years’ work after the first proposal to build a small satellite as part of the engineering curriculum was put forward by Professor Robert van Zyl in February 2008. Co-operation of the French Government made possible the forming of F’SATI and the French Ambassador in South Africa, Elizabeth Barbier, during a video address, promised continued support by France for the program.

The satellite also includes a small camera which will be used to monitor the releases of the 20 metre beacon antenna. The beacon will operate on 14099 kHz and will be used to characterize the Superdarn antennas at the Antarctic which are used to study the ionosphere. The UHF beacon operates on 437.345 MHz.

CPUT-F’SATI blog http://www.cput.ac.za/blogs/fsati/2013/12/15/first-image-captured-by-zacube-1-tshepisosat-from-space/

ZACUBE-1 http://www.cput.ac.za/blogs/fsati/zacube-1/

Southern African Amateur Radio Satellite Association (SA AMSAT) http://www.amsatsa.org.za/

Satellites on the Yasny Dnepr launch https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/dnepr-november-2013/

Dec 15 2013

First Novel inspired by Cubesats and Personal Spacecraft

A Pyramid of Tiny Skulls - Andy Thomas G0SFJThe first novel to find inspiration from Cubesats and the new wave of personal spacecraft – such as the Sprites – has been published and is available from Amazon and Createspace.

In ‘A Pyramid of Tiny Skulls’, the story is this:

“On the edge of the city lies the neglected Scheme, a City Fund zone bounded by the Lake and the Pyramid.

Jack Malik, entrepreneur and nightclub operator, carries a letter from murdered dancer Alina home to Russian enclave Kaliningrad, and agrees to collect a secret parcel from Shanghai.

What he brings will attract the City Leader’s attention, and echo through the Cosmos.”

The novel is dedicated to whom Andy Thomas G0SFJ describes as “the visionaries of CubeSats and personal spacecraft”.

The Kindle page on the Amazon website allows you to read a sample of the book, see
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pyramid-Tiny-Skulls-Andy-Thomas-ebook/dp/B00HB7IZDE/ref=sr_1_1

The paperback is at
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pyramid-Tiny-Skulls-Andy-Thomas/dp/1494319683/ref=sr_1_1

CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4548329

Dec 14 2013

KySat-2 Ham Radio Software Update

Archive image of KySat-1

Archive image of KySat-1

Jason Rexroat KK4AJE of the University of Kentucky KySat-2 team brings news of the latest version of the amateur radio ground station telemetry decoder software.

We really appreciate everyone using our ground station software to decode KySat-2 packets!  We are continuing to take suggestions and made several more bug fixes, and the third version of this software is now available for download!

Link: http://ssl.engineering.uky.edu/amateur-radio-operators/
KySat-2 Info: http://kentuckyspace.com/ or http://kysat2.engr.uky.edu/

Our changelog is included in the download, and also copied below.  Again, we appreciate all who have helped us gather telemetry from our satellite, and please continue to do so!  Email us with any bugs or suggestions for improvements and we’ll be sure to work on it!

Changelog:

– “Share” button to automatically email us our log files, along with counters showing how many beacons you’ve shared
– Custom COM port selection in case your created COM port doesn’t show up in our list
– Drag and dockable tabs
– Packaged into single executable file

These changes will enable further customization on your part, and the automatic sharing will put the data into a format our automated scripts can handle to generate our running telemetry tables. I know that the ping functionality is still disabled, but we are pushing through further subsystem checkout that will allow us to enable this and other functionality for you!

Jason Rexroat KK4AJE
Space Systems Lab, University of Kentucky
jason.rexroat<at>uky.edu

Minotaur-1 ELaNa-4 Satellites https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/elana-4-cubesats/