Tag Archives: Moon

Jul 9 2020

LO-94 Amateur Radio in Lunar Orbit

Longjiang-2 / LO-94 in Lunar Orbit

Longjiang-2 / LO-94 in Lunar Orbit

Nature carries an article about the spacecraft Longjiang-2 / Lunar-OSCAR 94 (LO-94), built by students at the Harbin Institute of Technology, that carried the first Amateur Radio communication system to operate in lunar orbit.

As a part of China’s Chang’e-4 lunar far side mission, two lunar microsatellites for low frequency radio astronomy, amateur radio and education, Longjiang-1 and Longjiang-2, were launched as secondary payloads on 20 May 2018 together with the Queqiao L2 relay satellite.

On 25 May, 2018, Longjiang-2 successfully inserted itself into a lunar elliptical orbit of 357 km × 13,704 km, and became the smallest spacecraft which entered lunar orbit with its own propulsion system. The satellite carried the first amateur radio communication system operating in lunar orbit, which is a VHF/UHF software defined radio (SDR) designed for operation with small ground stations.

This article describes and evaluates the design of the VHF/UHF radio and the waveforms used. Flight results of the VHF/UHF radio are also presented, including operation of the radio, performance analysis of downlink signals and the first lunar orbit UHF very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) experiment.

Read the article at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17272-8

Cartoon movie – Longjiang-2 / LO-94: Journey to the Moon
https://amsat-uk.org/2020/06/06/longjiang-2-lo-94-journey-to-the-moon/

Jun 6 2020

Longjiang-2 / LO-94: Journey to the Moon

Longjiang-2 / LO-94 in Lunar Orbit

Longjiang-2 / LO-94 in Lunar Orbit

A cartoon movie has been made that tells the story of the student-built spacecraft Longjiang-2 / Lunar-OSCAR-94 which went into lunar orbit and transmitted SSDV images back to radio amateurs on Earth.

SSDV image of Moon and Earth taken by LO-94 (Longjiang-2) - Credit Cees Bassa

SSDV image of Moon and Earth taken by LO-94 (Longjiang-2) – Credit Cees Bassa

Longjiang-2 / LO-94, developed by students and researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology, is the world’s smallest spacecraft to enter lunar orbit independently. It was launched on May 20, 2018 and radio amateurs tracked its progress as it traveled towards the Moon and successfully entered lunar orbit.

The spacecraft transmitted signals back to Earth on 435.400 and 436.400 MHz. The amateur radio mode SSDV (Slow Scan Digital Video) was used to send back pictures of the Moon and WSJT JT4G was used for messages.

Two VHF/UHF SDR transceivers onboard were used to provide the beacon, telemetry, telecommand, digital image downlink and a GMSK-JT4 repeater, transmitting power was about 2 watts.

Watch Longjiang-2: Journey to the Moon

Harbin Institute Of Technology Amateur Radio Club BY2HIT
Weibo: http://www.weibo.com/by2hit
QRZ: http://www.qrz.com/db/BY2HIT

May 19 2018

DSLWP amateur radio satellites launched to Lunar orbit

Hu Chaoran BG2CRY tests 435/2250 MHz dish feed for DSLWP ground station - Image credit Wei Mingchuan BG2BHC

Hu Chaoran BG2CRY tests 435/2250 MHz dish feed for DSLWP ground station – Image credit Wei Mingchuan BG2BHC

DSLWP is a lunar formation flying mission led by Harbin Institute of Technology for low frequency radio astronomy, amateur radio and education. It consists of a pair of 47 kg microsatellites launched from the Xichang Space Center into a lunar transfer orbit at 21:28 GMT on Sunday, May 20, 2018 and they will enter a 300 x 9000km lunar elliptical orbit. Onboard each satellite, there are two VHF/UHF SDR transceivers to provide beacon, telemetry, telecommand, digital image downlink and a GMSK-JT4 repeater. Onboard transmitting power is about 2 watts.

Update May 21, 2018: After deployment signals from the DSLWP satellites were received by Edson Pereira PY2SDR, Nicolás Castro CD3NDC, Robert Mattaliano N6RFM and many other radio amateurs around the world.

Chen Yue with 435/2250 MHz feed for the 12m dish at the DSLWP ground station - Image credit Wei Mingchuan BG2BHC

Chen Yue with 435/2250 MHz feed for the 12m dish at the DSLWP ground station – Image credit Wei Mingchuan BG2BHC

Wei Mingchuan BG2BHC reports the first launch window will open at about 21:28 GMT Sunday, May 20. The transmitters will be activated soon after separation. Satellite A will transmit 500 baud GMSK with 1/4 turbo code on 435.425 MHz and 250 baud GMSK with 1/2 turbo code and precoder on 436.425 MHz, and satellite B will transmit 500 baud GMSK with 1/4 turbo code on 435.400 MHz and 250 baud GMSK with 1/2 turbo code and precoder on 436.400 MHz, in every 5 minutes by default. Each transmission will last about 16 seconds. Radio amateurs in South America will have the earliest chance to receive the signals from the satellites, then North America, Oceania, Asia, Europe and Africa.

Harbin Institute of Technology Amateur Radio Club expects radio amateurs to join in this mission. We will prepare different QSL cards for different flight phase for amateurs successfully made QSO or received telemetry. Awards will also be given to the first 10 amateurs in each continent who successfully decoded the signals from the satellites, received the most number of packets, or received an image. Your participation will also help the team to get a better knowledge of the status of the satellites.

An open source decoding software based on GNU Radio to work with RTL-SDR and USRP is provided. Not difficult to change the grc files to support other SDR receivers. A small proxy software will send the decoded data to a server for real-time display.

IARU frequency coordination page:
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=530

Link budgets: http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/wp/?page_id=676

Decoder (GNU Radio OOT module): https://github.com/bg2bhc/gr-dslwp

Decoder (Linux Live CD): https://1drv.ms/u/s!Av6J6WjI3UbMhHm8gwMr4Z_keqWH

TLE: http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/tle/dslwp.txt

DSLWP-A Telemetry Display: http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/dashboard/pages_en/telemetry-a.html

DSLWP-B Telemetry Display: http://lilacsat.hit.edu.cn/dashboard/pages_en/telemetry-b.html

Wei Mingchuan BG2BHC Bug Fix 2018-05-20-1728-GMT: (Check BG2BHC Twitter feed for any further updates)

Sorry to find a bug in the DSLWP live cd! This bug will make the upload of data fail, so it is important to fix it. Please close the proxy, open a new terminal, and type in the following commands:

sudo python -m pip uninstall tornado

sudo python -m pip install tornado==4.5.3

The password is lilac
After running these commands, the bug should be fixed.

DSLWP Lunar Satellite

DSLWP Lunar Satellite

Sep 3 2016

UK CubeSat Forum – Lunar opportunity

View of Earth from the Moon AdobeStock_77398324Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and Goonhilly Earth Station (GES) are looking for CubeSat passenger payloads on a Lunar mission.

SSTL and GES are teaming up with ESA to create the world’s first commercial deep space mission. They plan to carry customer payload in the form of CubeSats into lunar orbit and provide the relay link back to Earth via Goonhilly. The launch is planned for 2019.

Orbital passengers e.g. nanosatellites and CubeSats will be deployed from the Mothership and will operate in lunar orbit.

The UK CubeSat Forum can help in creating new contacts for joint proposals, so do post on their site should you want to be involved!
http://www.cubesatforum.org.uk/wordpress/2016/08/30/call-for-lunar-missions-payloads/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/UKCubeSatForum

Download the related documents from http://www.goonhilly.org/lunar

May 27 2014

Manchester: Synergy-Space Meetup

Sotira Trifourki Synergy-SpaceOrganizer Sotira Trifourki reports on the planned Synergy-Space Meetups in the Manchester area.

She says: We are putting together a regular meetup group to start making the CubeSats and Space Telescope’s for our forthcoming missions to the Moon with Team SYNERGY MOON, you can find us here:
http://www.meetup.com/Synergy-Space/

Synergy Moon http://www.synergymoon.com/

Apr 28 2014

Ham Radio Earth-Moon-Earth Art Event on Google+ Hangout

PI9CAM Dwingeloo 25 meter dish antenna

PI9CAM Dwingeloo 25 meter dish antenna

OPTICKS is a live radio transmission performance between the Earth and the Moon during which images are sent to the Moon and back as radio signals using the MMSSTV Slow San TV software developed by Makoto Mori JE3HHT. A live Google+ hangout is taking place on May 1 at 2000 UT. A Reddit AMA will precede the Hangout at 1500 UT.

The project has been realized by visual artist Daniela de Paulis (IT/NL) in collaboration with Jan van Muijlwijk PA3FXB and the CAMRAS radio amateurs association based at Dwingeloo radio telescope (NL). Each live performance is made possible thanks to the collaboration of radio amateurs Howard Ling G4CCH (UK), Bruce Halász PY2BS (Brazil) and Daniel Gautschi HB9CRQ (CH).

The live hangout will feature a “touch” and bounce of Humans in Space Youth Art Competition artwork off the Moon using OPTICKS radio wave technology. Guests and remote participants will discuss the significance of the artwork and the performance and explore the impact of past, present, and future human presence on the Moon.

Guests
– Andrew Chaikin is the author of Man on the Moon and From Earth to the Moon.
– Wendell Mendell is a retired NASA lunar and planetary exploration scientist.
– Sarah Nobel is a current NASA lunar scientist and artist.
– Frank Shiner is a winner of both the 2010 and 2012 Humans in Space Youth Art Competitions.
– Jan van Muijlwijk PA3FXB, OPTICKS collaborator, radio operator, CAMRAS/Dwingeloo radio telescope.
– Daniela De Paulis is the visual artist and researcher who developed the OPTICKS live performance technology in collaboration with the Dwingeloo radio telescope.
– Jancy McPhee is the director of the Humans in Space Art Program, which includes the Youth Art Competition Project in its portfolio.

Learn more at http://www.Opticks.info and http://www.HumansInSpaceArt.org

OPTICKS makes use of a technology used by radio amateurs called Earth-Moon-Earth or Moonbounce in which the Moon is used as a natural reflector for radio signals.

In October 2009 Daniela de Paulis and Jan van Muijlwijk PA3FXB started pioneering a new application of Moonbounce technology, called Visual Moonbounce, which allows sending images to the Moon and back, combining Radio Astronomy with amateur radio technologies.

The title OPTICKS is inspired by Newton’s discoveries of the light spectrum, reflection and refraction. Similarly, the colours composing an image – converted into radio signals – are bounced off the Moon (reflected and refracted) by its surface during each live performance.

The performance is introduced by live sounds of amateurs radio signals captured by the Dwingeloo antenna tracking the moon.

Watch a recording of the performance for the radio programme RaiTunes:

You can support the project by purchasing a limited edition t-shirt from this link: https://fabrily.com/EarthAndMoon2

Google+ Hangout GAM AstroArt: Touching the Moon with Art & Footsteps https://plus.google.com/events/ckm4364t5f7fcg0m42rgb7br2lc

Daniela de Paulis http://www.danieladepaulis.com/

Story source: http://www.opticks.info/