STRaND-1 CubeSat Plasma Propulsion Test Firing
BBC TV have been filming at the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) for an item on the STRaND-1 CubeSat mission for Stargazing Live.
SpinSat comprises a 19 inch diameter sphere, with a mass of 55 kg and 4 antennas equal distance around the equator. It is intended to be a tumbling satellite with single axis momentum wheel and multiple micro-thrusters.
It aims to test new technology micro-thrusters and teach high school students about satellite operations.
Secondary mission is a 9k6 GFSK UHF store and forward AX.25 packet radio system with 2 watts of RF output. Planned for a July 2013 launch from Kennedy Space Center into a 330 km 51.6 degree inclination orbit.
A downlink frequency of 437.230 MHz has been coordinated.
IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel status page http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru
Overview of the PRISM Ham Radio Service – Image Credit Tokyo University
The team that developed the PRISM satellite have announced it is being opened up for use by radio amateurs during afternoon passes.
The satellite was built by the University of Tokyo and launched on January 23, 2009 into a 660 by 670 km orbit. It uses AX.25 packet radio and can now be used by amateur radio operators as a store-and-forward message box.
Full details at http://www.space.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/prism/en/HAMservice.html
PRISM http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=119
FITSAT-1 plans to use LED’s to signal in Morse code
The amateur radio CubeSat FITSAT-1 (aka NIWAKA) carries an Optical Communications experiment that aims to write Morse Code across the night sky. The satellite is fitted with a bank of high power LEDs that will be driven with 200W pulses to produce extremely bright flashes that may be visible to the unaided eye.
FITSAT-1 was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) at 15:44 UT on Thursday, October 4 along with F-1 and TechEdSat.
On Sunday, October 7 Takushi Tanaka JA6AVG provided this update:
We have received a lot of signal and telemetry reports from amsat members. All reports show FITSAT-1 starts working and sound. Thank you very much for your help.
We will examine movements, temperatures, and battery states of FITSAT-1 during these 10 days, and start experiments of 5.8GHz transmission and flashing LEDs.
I will announce the experiments on my web-page http://www.fit.ac.jp/~tanaka/fitsat.shtml
As well as 437.250 MHz and 437.445 MHz (both +/- 10 kHz Doppler) this innovative satellite can also transmit on 5840.0 MHz (+/- 134 kHz Doppler).
Original design of the Euroluna Romit3 Lunar Rover – Image courtesy of Andrew Collis/X-Prize Foundation
The President of Euroluna, Palle Haastrup OZ1HIA, provides an update on the progress of the Euroluna Google Lunar X-Prize team who are aiming to land a rover on the Moon.
Their first amateur radio spacecraft Romit-1 is a 2U CubeSat that will transmit on 437.505 MHz using 1200 bps AX.25 packet radio. It will be fitted with an Ion Motor and if everything goes well it should, after a year, be able to raise its orbit from 310 km to 700 km.
In this HamRadioNow video AMSAT President, Barry Baines WD4ASW, gives an update on what AMSAT is up to now and planning for the future.
AMSAT-UK 
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