The Warwick University Satellite Team (WUSAT) have won a place on the sub-orbital Rocket Experiments for University Students REXUS 1718 campaign. The team say:
We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in our bid for a slot on the REXUS 1718 campaign!
We will now be looking to expand our team to tackle the increase in workload primarily looking at 3rd year engineering students.
Thank you everyone for your support and REXUS/BEXUS for the excellent advice, we will continue to update you on our progress towards the project’s most ambitious target yet!
UKube-1 CubeSat on its way to Kazakhstan – Credit Clyde Space
UKube-1 left Clyde Space in Glasgow on its way to Baikonur in Kazakhstan on December 12, 2013. The 3U CubeSat carries a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube boards (FUNcube-2) to provide an Educational beacon and a 435/145 MHz linear transponder for amateur radio SSB/CW communications.
Reports on a space flight forum indicate that the Soyuz-2-1B/Fregat-M which will carry UKube-1 is currently expected to launch on March 27, 2014.
CubeSat PUCP-SAT-1 – Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
The Peruvian CubeSat PUCP-SAT-1 (145.840 MHz AX.25 FM) was carried by the microsatellite UNISAT-5 which was launched on a Dnepr on November 21, 2013.
When in orbit UNISAT-5 deployed PUCP-SAT-1 and Neilsao Vilchez reports PUCP-SAT-1 has in turn deployed an even smaller satellite POCKET-PUCP.
The femtosatellite POCKET-PUCP measures just 8.35 by 4.95 by 1.55 cm and has a 10 mW 12 wpm CW (On-Off-Keying OOK) beacon on 437.200 MHz. The team at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú would welcome any reception reports.
Diagram showing PUCP-SAT-1 and POCKET-PUCP – Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
Neilsao Vilchez says:
On Wednesday December 4 we detected our satellite PUCP-SAT-1 (launched from Dnepr RS-20/UNISAT-5).
We think it is one of the following objects:
-2013-066AC -2013-066S -2013-066T -2013-066U
Which are very close to each other and we can not resolve which one it is.
Femtosatellite Pocket-PUCP – Credit Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú
We got our packet beacon at 145.840 MHz with packets stays 20 seconds, so, it is undoubtedly our beacon, we know that PUCP-SAT-1 is alive, healthy, it has been recharging its batteries okay.
On Friday, December 6, as planned, the POCKET-PUCP (femtosatellite) was released around 0800 UT, we are looking for its 437.200 MHz transmission at 12 wpm.
The Data Warehouse now provides the facility to download FUNcube-1 (AO-73) Whole Orbit Data (WOD) as a .csv file. The file is produced at 23:59 every day and contains data for the preceding 24 hours. It contains all the channels shown on the WOD graph, which shows the latest orbit data captured.
WRAPS Portable Satellite Antenna Rotator System – Copyright ARRL
The January 2014 edition of QST contains an article by ARRL Education and Technology Program Coordinator Mark Spencer WA8SME on a portable azimuth and elevation rotator system for tracking satellites called WRAPS.
WRAPS stands for Wobbler RadFxSat Antenna Pointing System rotator system which Mark developed to support tracking CubeSats such as FUNcube-1 and the upcoming Fox-1 and RadFxSat/Fox-1B. His target audience includes school groups who want to access the capabilities of the CubeSats.
Thanks to Mark and the ARRL a copy of the article in PDF format is available here WRAPS – Mark Spencer WA8SME QST Jan 2014 Copyright ARRL.
For personal use only – no copying, reprinting or distribution without written permission from the ARRL.
Mark Spencer WA8SME gave a presentation on WRAPS during the 2013 AMSAT Space Symposium in Houston, Texas, on Friday, November 1, 2013. His talk was recorded by Patrick Stoddard VA7EWK.
Apologies for missing the start of Mark’s introduction, and for the quality of this video. The Symposium organizers dimmed the lights in the front of the room for this presentation, which meant Mark was essentially standing in the dark as he gave his presentation.
At the AMSAT Forum at the 2013 Dayton Hamvention the presentations on education wrapped up with a talk by Mark Spencer, ARRL Education & Technology Program Director. “Spence”, WA8SME, briefly described his classroom experiments for measuring the “wobble” of the Fox satellite, demonstrating a Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) for a solar array, and WRAPS a lower cost azimuth-elevation rotor system for lightweight satellite antennas.
Watch Fox Classroom Experiments, by Spence WA8SME – 2013 Dayton Hamvention
A limited number of complete WRAPS systems will be available through the AMSAT-NA Store. As of December 12 they were not yet available, and AMSAT-NA do not at present have a firm date when they will be in stock. Because of uncertainty of the price and number which will be available, they are not taking advanced orders. When they are ready to process orders, AMSAT-NA will make the information public. Please do not call the AMSAT office.
The 2U ESTELLE will accommodate the QB50 scientific payload and an experimental miniaturized cold gas thruster module with four thrusters and 50 grams of fuel.
This mission is a partnership between Estonia, Sweden, Latvia and Slovenia. The general hardware design will improve upon the single unit ESTCube-1, launched on May 7, 2013.
Cold gas propulsion system is seen as a very attractive solution for the CubeSats, as the standard limits the use of pyrotechnics and high-pressure systems. The propulsion module, developed by NanoSpace, uses butane under 2-5 bar pressure. This should be in accordance with the next CubeSat standard revision. The 0.3 unit module will be located at the opposite end from the QB50 payload. It contains four thrusters, which are placed on the same side for maximum delta-v capability (40 m/s). This delta-v capability can be used to alternate the orbit in order to enhance the scientific return of the QB50 mission by extending the satellite’s lifetime.
ESTELLE Cold Gas Thruster – Credit NanoSpace
An experimental high data rate transmitter (HDRT) is envisaged if it fits within the system margins to include it on-board the satellite. It would operate on S, C or X band amateur radio frequencies and use BPSK modulation. Up to 10 Mbit/s data rates can be achieved with 3 W of operating power.
Proposing a UHF GMSK/BPSK downlinks up to 19k2 bps and a series of HDRT experiments including a 2.4 GHz downlink using GFSK/BPSK at up to 1Mbps, a 5.8 GHz downlink using GFSK and BPSK at up to 10Mbps and a 10 GHz downlink at up to 10 Mbp.
The Warwick University Satellite Team (WUSAT) have won a place on the sub-orbital Rocket Experiments for University Students REXUS 1718 campaign. The team say:
AMSAT-UK 
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