Jan Stupl provides an update on PhoneSat 2.4 which was part of the ORS3 / Elana 4 launch from the Wallops Flight Facility on November 19, 2013.
Minotaur-1 Launch from Wallops Flight Facility
By now there are TLEs at space-track for all 29 objects of that launch (NORAD ID 39380 – 39409), but only five of them have been identified on space-track.
The PhoneSat team thinks that 39381 is theirs, but 39402, 39400 and 39397 are also (less likely) possibilities. Because the satellites are still close, using the radio beacon for identification is somewhat ambiguous. Getting more observations would be very helpful for everybody on that launch.
You find all information about the 437.425 MHz PhoneSat 2.4 on the phonesat.org website and people can submit received packets as well, and comment which TLE they used. The latter is obviously important to gain confidence on the assigned TLEs.
Wolfe told us that NASA’s next generation PhoneSat satellites to be launched on November 6 and December 6, will emit packets over the amateur radio band at 437.425 MHz. Satellites transmit using AFSK (1200 bps) modulation, AX.25 packet coding and have vertical linear polarization. As in the first launch, hence the term “Crowd-sourced science” coined by mentor Jim Cockrell.
The two PhoneSat 2 and 3 satellites will transmit with a periodicity of respectively 28 seconds and 30 seconds. The PhoneSat 2.0 beta satellite, Alexander, transmit with a periodicity of 25 seconds. One satellite will be up there for two years and the other for three months.
Pictures taken by the Graham and Bell PhoneSat satellites, deployed April 21, have been released.
Graham and Bell have been transmitting picture packets. Radio amateurs around the world have been receiving the individual packets and passing them to the PhoneSat team who have stitched them together to restore the complete Earth picture.
On his Blog Nader Omer ST2NH reports that he has been receiving images from PhoneSats Graham and Bell that were deployed on Sunday, April 21.
He says “Every Image is small part of one big picture which is being compose by phonesat team from the world wide collected data, like jigsaw puzzle photo.”
The Team behind the three PhoneSats, deployed April 21, have thanked radio amateurs for their response so far and they request further telemetry reports.
They say:
Since the successful deployment of our three PhoneSats on Sunday, we have already received over 200 packets from Amateur Radio operators around the world! We are sincerely grateful for all of your support and would like to thank you for your key contributions in making this technology demonstration a success. The received packets are being processed right now and will be published soon. Please keep sending packets so we can follow the status of the satellites for the complete duration of the technology demonstration.
The three PhoneSats carry amateur radio payloads on 437.425 MHz. The callsign of all three satellites is KJ6KRW and they transmit using AFSK (1200 bps) modulation, AX.25 packet radio. The two PhoneSat 1.0 satellites, Graham and Bell, transmit with a periodicity of respectively 28 seconds and 30 seconds. The PhoneSat 2.0 beta satellite, Alexandre, transmits with a periodicity of 25 seconds.
Three PhoneSat CubeSats with amateur radio payloads were launched on an Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares(TM) rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) in eastern Virginia on Sunday, April 21.
The three PhoneSats carry amateur radio payloads on 437.425 MHz, each transmits at intervals so all three are receivable during a pass. Roland Zurmely PY4ZBZ received them on the second orbit on April 21 at 22:52 UT, see http://www.qsl.net/py4zbz/phs.htm and Mike Rupprecht DK3WN reported receiving all three on Monday April 22, see http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=32755
The callsign of all three satellites is KJ6KRW and they transmit using AFSK (1200 bps) modulation, AX.25 packet coding. The two PhoneSat 1.0 satellites, Graham and Bell, transmit with a periodicity of respectively 28 seconds and 30 seconds. The PhoneSat 2.0 beta satellite, Alexandre, transmits with a periodicity of 25 seconds.
Watch PhoneSat: Small Satellites Use Smart Phones For Brains
PhoneSat was chosen as one of the winners in the Aerospace category for the Popular Science magazine “Best of What’s New 2012″ awards. The PhoneSat is a technology demonstration mission consisting of three 1U CubeSats intended to prove that a smartphone can be used to perform many of the functions required of a spacecraft bus.
The satellite is built around the Nexus smartphone which will be running the Android operating system and will be enclosed in a standard 1U CubeSat structure. The main function of the phone is to act as the Onboard Computer, but the mission will also utilize the phone’s SD card for data storage, 5MP camera for Earth Observation, and 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis magnetometer for attitude determination.
One of the nanosatellites, powered by the HTC Nexus One smartphone, will send back pictures of Earth. The other two, running on the Samsung Nexus S, will have two-way S-band radio allowing them to be controlled from Earth.
The satellites have no solar cells and operate on battery only so will only have a lifetime of about a week,
AMSAT-UK 
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