Tag Archives: Ham Radio

Jul 17 2012

PIE1 – Raspberry Pi Sends Live Images from Near Space

A Raspberry Pi

Dave Akerman M6RPI has used a Raspberry Pi computer board as the flight computer on a High Altitude Balloon (HAB) and sent back live images from near space at an altitude of almost 40 km.

SSDV picture from a previous PIE balloon - Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI

SSDV picture from a previous PIE balloon – Image credit Dave Akerman M6RPI

The balloon, appropriately called PIE1, was launched from Brightwalton, in Berkshire on July 14, 2012. The images were transmitted on 434.650 MHz (300 bps, 600 Hz shift) in the amateur radio 70cm band using the Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) standard.

PIE1 reached an altitude of 39,994 metres and images were received as far away as Northern Ireland (that’s over 500 km, not bad for just 10 mW on 434.650 MHz!).

See the images sent by PIE1 http://sanslogic.co.uk/ssdv/live

The full story and pictures are on Dave Akerman’s website http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=592

Read The Register article http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/17/pi_ascent/

Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:ssdv

UK High Altitude Society http://www.ukhas.org.uk/

High Altitude Balloons have featured at a recent AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford.

You can watch a video online of the presentation that Cambridge University Spaceflight gave called “Teddy Bears in Space” at http://www.batc.tv/channel.php?ch=1
In the Archive List category box select AMSAT then click Select Category then in the stream box select Teddys and click on Select Stream

Or download a copy of the video at http://www.batc.tv/vod/Teddys.flv

This years AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium takes place Sept. 15-16 details at
http://www.uk.amsat.org/colloquium/twelve

Jul 17 2012

SkyCube uses Kickstarter for Funding

Tim DeBenedictis and Anna Vital with the SkyCube satellite

Tim DeBenedictis and Anna Vital with the SkyCube satellite

PC World magazine reports that a fundraising campaign for the satellite, SkyCube, launched on Kickstarter last weekend (July 14) with the goal of raising US$82,500. Kickstarter is an online service popular with entrepreneurs and startups for raising money.

SkyCube-SatelliteThe article says the SkyCube team is led by Tim DeBenedictis, a self-described “space nut” and the man behind the popular Sky Safari smartphone app that provides a guide to the stars.

It will take pictures of Earth with three VGA cameras and deliver 120-character messages to smartphones running a SkyCube app. The messages will be collected on Earth and transmitted to the satellite about once a day, where they will be stored in memory and broadcast every 10 seconds. In addition to the app, anyone with a fairly modest amateur radio-type receiver might also be able to pick up the broadcasts directly.

The PC World article incorrectly says that Chris Phoenix is the projects radio expert, he isn’t, Chris is doing the firmware not RF.

SkyCube will be the first 1U CubeSat to carry an inflatable balloon. When the 3-meter reflective balloon is deployed 90 days after launch it should be visible to observers on the ground. A few weeks after deploying the balloon SkyCube will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

It is understood they are planning to use 915 MHz and hope to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the first half of 2013. http://www.southernstars.com/skycube/

Watch SkyCube Interview

Read the PC World story ‘Space Nut’ Looks Skyward With Web-funded Satellite
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/259375/space_nut_looks_skyward_with_webfunded_satellite.html 

SkyCube Proposes “Tweets from Space” http://www.uk.amsat.org/8435

Southern Stars SkyCube http://www.southernstars.com/skycube/

Kickstarter SkyCube http://www.skycube.org/

Radio ham Zac Manchester KD2BHC used Kickstarter to raise $74,586 in donations to fund the development and deployment of over a hundred amateur radio KickSat sprite satellites.

The amateur radio satellite project ArduSat managed to raise donations of $106,330 in just 30 days.

Kickstarter is not just about raising large sums of money, for example Sandy Antunes used Kickstarter to raise $2,780 to buy a ham radio transceiver and antennas to create an amateur radio satellite ground station Calliope

Kickstarter to launch in UK http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18780184

Jul 16 2012

Ecuador, heading into space

CubeSat NEE-01 Pegasus

A Chinese rocket due to launch in the 2nd quarter of 2013 will carry CubeSat NEE-01 Pegasus from Ecuador.

Ronnie Nader with Elisse Nader and CubeSat

The NEE-01 Pegasus engineering team was led by Cmdr. Ronnie Nader, Ecuador’s first astronaut. The tiny 1U CubeSat (10cm cube) has a large fold-out solar array, a world first, and carries a 902 MHz band 720p HD TV transmitter, another world first for a CubeSat. Also operating in the same band will be a beacon that will send a Morse Code ID, a SSTV image and Ecuador’s national anthem.

The raw aluminum structure of the CubeSat was donated by Professor Bob Twiggs KE6QMD. After launch the 10 by 10 by 10 cm NEE-01 Pegasus will deploy its 75 cm fold-out solar panels, the largest to be flown on a CubeSat.

As part of the educational outreach objectives of the satellite video of the Earth taken by the HD camera will be made available to school students in Ecuador.

The satellite will send two signals that will be received and decoded by the EXA’s HERMES-A ground station in Guayaquil and then uploaded live to the Internet using Facebook and Twitter; the first signal will contain text book questions and the second will contain an image related to the question. If the students are able to answer the question correctly they will be granted access to the video camera on board the spacecraft and will be able to see earth from space as the astronauts see it in their space missions. More advanced students will have access to the pure radio signal so they can try decoding it by themselves.

The satellite featured in the July 15 edition of the El Murcurio newspaper.

Read the El Murcurio newspaper article in Google English http://tinyurl.com/Ecuador-in-Space

NEE-01 Pegasus on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NEE01PEGASO/

IAC2011 Paper http://exa.academia.edu/RonnieNader/Papers/795135/NEE-01_PEGASUS_The_first_Ecuadorian_Satellite

NEE-01 Pegasus will monitor near-earth objects http://www.uk.amsat.org/6932

Italian Microsat to Deploy Six Amateur Radio Satellites http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=7717

Jul 16 2012

The First African CubeSat ZACUBE-1

Dr Sandile Malinga, CEO of the South African Space Agency
unveils South Africa’s CubeSat Program – Image credit CPUT

Since the defenceWeb article was written it is believed ZACUBE-1 and ZACUBE-2 have changed designation and the references to the 3U Cubesat ZACUBE-1 should instead read ZACUBE-2.

Students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) have been building an amateur radio 3U CubeSat ZACUBE-1 that will carry out propagation research using a beacon on 14.099 MHz.

The objectives of the mission are:

1) Training of post-graduate students in Satellite Systems Engineering.

2) Earth observation using a visible band matrix imager payload and an S-Band payload data transmitter (2.4 to 2.45 GHz).

3) UHF Store & Forward system (70 cm amateur band).

4) Experimental 115200 bps L-Band to S-band data transponder.

5) HF beacon payload for characterization of Hermanus Magnetic Observatory’s Dual Auroral Radar Network antenna at SANAE base in Antarctica (14 MHz).

ZACUBE-1 will conform to the 3U CubeSat standard with a maximum separated mass of 4 kg. The spacecraft will be 3-axis stabilized using a novel Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) developed by the University of Stellenbosch. The spacecraft’s Telemetry, Tracking, and Command (TT&C) system will operate in the 70 cm band and will be commanded from the amateur ground station at CPUT.

The website defenceWeb quotes a launch date of 2013.

The IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel have agreed these frequencies:
Uplinks on 437.525 MHz and 1260.25 MHz and downlinks on 437.345 MHz and 2405.00 MHz.

Renier Siebrits ZS1MIR gave this presentation about the project on August 7, 2011.

Watch ZACUBE-1

CPUT students are currently involved in the development of a second amateur radio CubeSat, ZACUBE-2, which will be 10x10x10 cm with a mass of one kilogram.

CPUT unveils South Africa’s first CubeSat http://www.cput.ac.za/files/images_folder/news/newsletters/mojo/Moja%20Newsletter%20October%202011.pdf

CPUT CubeSat Projects http://active.cput.ac.za/fsati/public/index.asp?pageid=956

defenceWeb: South Africa’s CubeSats promoting space ambitions http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23165:south-africas-cubesats-promoting-space-ambitions&catid=90:science-a-technology&Itemid=204

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

United Nations General Assembly Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space – Implementing small satellite programmes: technical, managerial, regulatory and legal issues November 28, 2011 http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/reports/ac105/AC105_1005E.pdf

Jul 15 2012

Video of ISS Ham Radio contact with WISH students

International Space Station Flight Engineer Joe Acaba KE5DAR used amateur radio to speak with high school students participating in a summer program called Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars, or WISH.

The students, selected from across the country, were attending briefings and engaging in competitive hands-on engineering activities related to space exploration and research.

Watch Joe Acaba Speaks with WISH Students

WISH – Encouraging science, technology, engineering and mathematics http://www.uk.amsat.org/8495

ARISS contact with STEM High School Aerospace Scholars, Houston, TX
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/july2012/ariss_event_1007.htm

NASA WISH Press release http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/jun/HQ_12-209_WISH.html

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) http://ariss.rac.ca/

Jul 13 2012

LightSail-1 CubeSat Videos

Planetary Society’s LightSail-1 Spacecraft

 

The Planetary Society’s amateur radio spacecraft Lightsail-1 carries a 32m square metre solar sail demonstration.

After launch LightSail-1 will spend a few weeks in orbit during which the team will check out the subsystems. The side panels will then be deployed, exposing a folded sail, and a motor driven sail deployment will extend rigid booms.

With the sail deployed, the primary operation for the spacecraft are performing 90 degree slews to get the sail normal to the sun vector, or edge on with the sun vector.

A combination of ground based sensors and on board sensors will be used to characterize the acceleration due to solar pressure. Imagers on the deployed panels will be used to capture the sail deployment.

It is proposing to have a downlink in the 435 MHz band with a 1.5W output, semi-duplex 9k6 GMSK AX25 with a CW preamble to a single monopole. LightSail-1 is a 3U CubeSat weighing around 4.5 kg. More information will be available at http://polysat.calpoly.edu/LightSail.php

Watch deployment of the solar sail

Watch deployment of the solar panels

Watch antenna deployment in slow motion

The Planetary Society‘s LightSail program will launch three separate spacecraft over the course of several years, beginning with LightSail-1. Lightsail-2 will attempt a longer duration flight to higher Earth orbits, demonstrating that solar sails can increase their orbital energy and taking the next major step toward using solar sails for missions in and beyond Earth orbit.

LightSail-3 will fly to the Sun-Earth Libration Point, L1, where solar sail spacecraft could be permanently placed as solar weather stations, monitoring the geomagnetic storms from the Sun that potentially endanger electrical grids on Earth as well as satellites in Earth orbit.

Planetary Society LightSail-1 http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sailing/