Tag Archives: myPocketQub

Jul 18 2013

UKube-1 with Amateur Radio Transponder may launch October

Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit

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

BBC News is reporting that the UK Space Agency’s first CubeSat UKube-1, being built by Clyde Space in Glasgow, may launch in late October 2013.

Clyde Space Senior Systems Engineer Steve Greenland will be giving a presentation on UKube-1 to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium which takes place July 20-21 at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ, UK.

The Colloquium is open to all but for those unable to attend the event all 18 presentations including UKube-1 will be web streamed live on the BATC site at http://batc.tv/ch_live.php?ch=3

Flight and Engineering Models of FUNcube-1 with FUNcube-2 boards

Flight and Engineering Models of FUNcube-1 with FUNcube-2 boards

UKube-1 will carry a set of AMSAT-UK FUNcube-2 boards which will provide:
• 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon on 145.915 MHz
• Linear transponder downlink 145.930-145.950 MHz for SSB/CW communications
• Linear transponder uplink 435.080-435.060 MHz

In addition UKube-1 also carries:
• ISIS 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon on 145.840 MHz
• UKSEDS myPocketQub 442 on 437.425-437.525 MHz with 11 mW output using spread spectrum
• 1 watt transmitter on 2401.0 MHz from Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), Cape Town, for high data rate mission data downlinking using up to 1 Mbps QPSK or OQPSK modulation

Gunter’s Space Page lists UKube-1 as manifested on a Soyuz-2-1b Fregat-M rocket to be launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

FUNcube-1 flight model - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 flight model – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

If the launch does go ahead as planned in late October then the FUNcube-2 boards will be in orbit before the FUNcube-1 satellite which may launch in November, 2013 on a Dnepr rocket from Dombarovsky near Yasny.

FUNcube-1 will be using these frequencies:
• 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon on 145.935 MHz
• Linear transponder downlink 145.950-145.970 MHz for SSB/CW communications
• Linear transponder uplink 435.150-435.130 MHz

There will be a presentation on FUNcube-1 at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium which will be streamed live to the web. The presentation schedule is here.

Read the BBC News story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-23319103

Watch UK Space Agency video – UKube-1 CubeSat payload animation

On Friday, October 19, 2012 after some final testing and characterisation checks completed at the facilities of ISIS BV in Delft, AMSAT-UK handed over the set of three PCBs that form the FUNcube-2 subsystem on the UKube-1 spacecraft to Clyde Space Ltd in Glasgow. Clyde Space are leading the development and assembly of this CubeSat project for the UK Space Agency.

Steve Greenland of Clyde Space receives the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-2 boards that will be incorporated into UKube-1

Steve Greenland of Clyde Space receives the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-2 boards that will be incorporated into UKube-1

The PCBs were taken to Glasgow in a Pelicase by Graham Shirville G3VZV who handed them to Steve Greenland Senior Systems Engineer at Clyde Space.

The three PCB’s comprise:
• CCT Board – Command, control and telemetry, interfaces via I2C with the antenna deployment system and the main OBC (On-Board Computer).
• RF Board – Command receiver, telemetry transmitter and linear transponder of the FUNcube satellite educational payload also includes telemetry sensors.
• PA Board – 400 mW VHF amplifier and sensors.

The telemetry transmitter provided by AMSAT-UK will be available for educational outreach to school students around the world.

UKube-1 on display at UK Space Conference in Glasgow

UKube-1 on display at UK Space Conference in Glasgow

Sep 26 2012

UKube-1 Amateur Radio CubeSat books a ride on Soyuz-2

Artist’s Impression of UKube-1 in space – Credit Clyde Space

UKube-1 – the UK Space Agency’s first CubeSat mission – has ‘booked’ its journey into space on a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket. The launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrone in Kazakhstan is expected to take place in March 2013.

UKube-1 carries an amateur radio 435/145 MHz linear transponder built by members of AMSAT-UK.

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May 25 2012

Italian Microsat to Deploy Amateur Radio Satellites

UniSat-5 with labelsThe Italian microsat UniSat-5 will itself deploy a number of additional amateur radio satellites. Among them should be the CubeSats PUCP-SAT-1, HumSat-D, Icube-1, Dove-4 (Planet Labs Inc. non-amateur) and PocketQubes Wren, Eagle-1 (BeakerSat), Eagle-2 ($50Sat), QB-Scout1. PUCP-SAT-1 intends to subsequently release a further satellite Pocket-PUCP.

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Feb 12 2012

Open Mission Control Software for Satellite & Balloon Projects

Open Mission Control

Open Mission Control

Open Mission Control is open source, open access software for monitoring and controlling small spacecraft or balloon projects.

The software is designed to provide an application and framework that can be adapted quickly and easily to support a variety of spacecraft including CubeSats, myPocketQubs and NanoLab experiments, and sounding rocket and high altitude balloon experiments.

The team include students, space professionals, educators and enthusiasts from around the world, all working together to build a great mission control application for small spacecraft projects.

The Open Mission Control framework consists of the application and graphical user interface which contain the basic structure of the program, and the Open Mission Control toolbox, which provides a number of ready to use functions typically required for mission control applications.

The Open Mission Control application and graphical user interface can be adapted to a project quickly and easily, by populating them with elements from the Open Mission Control toolbox and other standard library elements. This approach allows also users with limited programming experience to create sophisticated mission control software by building on a solid basic implementation.

Designed to work with any spacecraft project, the first flight mission that is expected to use Open Mission Control is myPocketQub442. Developed by UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (UKSEDS) myPocketQub442 was selected to fly as a pocket spacecraft attached to UKube-1, the first United Kingdom Space Agency CubeSat. It is expected to be the first mission controlled by Open Mission Control and to demonstrate and verify various use cases:

+ The first use case is for professional monitoring, command and control of a real spacecraft.

+ The second use case involves schools and universities using Open Mission Control to upload their virtual payloads for their OpenSpace365 projects, monitor their experiments as they run and download the data for analysis.

+ The third use case involves the use of Open Mission Control as monitoring software for the various scientific and engineering sub-payloads that will fly on myPocketQub442. The students conducting these experiments will use Open Mission Control to access and store the data from these payload experiments for analysis and research.

+ The fourth use case is communication with engineering models of the real spacecraft which will be made available on the Internet. These engineering models are duplicates of the flight hardware and allow Open Mission Control to command and monitor them and their sub-payloads in real time and to simulate different critical mission phases under real conditions.

Additional information and links are available on the Open Mission Control webpage at: http://openmissioncontrol.wordpress.com/

Feb 5 2012

UKSEDS – Students for the Exploration and Development of Space

Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit

Artists impression of UKube-1 in orbit

Members of UKSEDS are developing an amateur radio satellite payload called myPocketQub442 (437.425-437.525 MHz) that will fly on the UKube-1 satellite towards the end of the year.

UKSEDS is a space enthusiast organisation for both school and university students. Anyone who is interested can become a member of UKSEDS, young or old, student or non-student. Its aims are:

– To promote the exploration of space, and the research and development of space-related technologies.
– To provide a forum through which students can become involved in the international space community.
– To motivate students to excel in space-related fields.
– To share in the advancing knowledge and growing benefits to be reaped from space.
– To improve space-related education through both academic work and hands-on projects.

UKSEDS holds an annual National Conference, which brings together students throughout the country to learn more about space and to meet professionals in the space business.

Their myPocketQub442 project has been selected to fly on the UK Space Agency’s first mission UKube-1. Read all about it at http://ukseds.org/projects/ukube/

Members of the group took part in a parabolic flight on which they tested the hinges that deploy the solar panels of UKube-1.

Watch Microgravity-on-Demand 1/20111120/P11/3D1L raw video

OpenSpace365 myPocketQub442 List of Missions http://openspace365.appspot.com/

If you are interested in setting up a UKSEDS branch at your school or university please see
http://ukseds.org/branches/

UKSEDS http://ukseds.org/