A NASA Ames Systems Engineer on the TechEdSat CubeSat Project she is committed to encouraging young people to pursue science, technology and engineering careers. In recognition of her achievements, Ali Guarneros Luna KJ6TVO, has been named as one of the 2013 Luminary Honorees by the Hispanic Engineering National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC).
Born in Mexico City she now lives in San Jose, California, receiving her BS in Aerospace Engineering at San Jose State University in 2010 and completing her MS in Aerospace Engineering at San Jose State University in 2012.
On Saturday, August 3 at 1948 UT the Japanese HTV-4 cargo vessel was successfully launched to the International Space Station (ISS). On-board were the HamTV transmitter and four CubeSats carrying amateur radio payloads.
PicoDragon CubeSat – Image credit VNSC
The CubeSats will be deployed from the ISS by the JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) between October 2013 and March 2014, they are:
• PicoDragon a 1U CubeSat developed by Vietnam National Satellite Center (VNSC), University of Tokyo and IHI aerospace. 437.250 MHz CW beacon and 437.365 MHz 1200 bps AFSK AX.25 telemetry.
• ArduSat-1 developed by NanoSatisfi. 437.325 MHz 9k6 MSK CCSDS downlink.
• ArduSat-X developed by NanoSatisfi. 437.345 MHz 9k6 MSK CCSDS downlink .
• TechEdSat-3 developed by interns at the NASA Ames Research Center. 437.465 MHz 1200 bps packet radio beacon transmitting 1 watt to 1/4 wave monopole. It plans to test an Iridium Satphone modem and has a deployment mechanism to de-orbit in 10 days.
They are 1U in size (10*10*10 cm) except for TechEdSat-3 which is 3U (30*10*10 cm).
The company NanoRack has announced it is sending 36 Units of CubeSats to the ISS (believed to be 26 separate CubeSats, some 2U or 3U in size). At the time of writing it is believed they will be going on a later cargo vessel.
A basic amateur radio station that should be able to receive HamTV from ISS – Image AMSAT-Italia
The HamTV transmitter is the culmination of over ten years work to establish an amateur radio TV transmitter on the ISS. It will use patch antennas fixed on the Meteorite Debris Panels (MDP) protecting the hull of the ISS Columbus module. These antennas were installed while Columbus was being constructed. A fund-raising campaign took place during 2005-7 to raise over 65,000 Euros for the antennas. Individual radio amateurs from around the world donated generously as did several organisations such as AMSAT-UK and the RSGB.
The transmitter will be installed in the Columbus module in the coming months. It can transmit DVB-S signals on 2422.0 MHz or 2437.0 MHz at either 1.3 Msps or 2.3 Msps with 10 watts of RF output.
The main mission of HamTV is to perform contacts between the astronauts on the ISS and school students, not only by voice as now, but also by unidirectional video from the ISS to the ground.
In addition to school contacts the equipment is capable of transmitting other pre-recorded video up to 24 hours a day to allow ground stations tuning.
HamVideo is the name of the onboard DATV S-band transmitter. HamTV is the name of the complete system, comprising DATV downlink and VHF voice uplink. Kaiser Italia SRL was the prime-contractor for the design and development of the flight and ground segment http://www.kayser.it/index.php/exploration-2/ham-tv
Luca Parmitano KF5KDP on the Expedition 36 EVA, July 9, 2013- Image credit ESA
In edition 683 of Jonathan’s Space Report (JSR) Jonathan McDowell provides the history of the spacesuit of radio amateur Luca Parmitano KF5KDP which developed a water leak inside the helmet during a spacewalk on July 9, 2013. The spacewalk was abandoned and he was assisted back to the International Space Station (ISS) by Chris Cassidy KF5KDR.
The suit Luca Parmitano KF5KDP used for the extravehicular activity (EVA) was EMU 3011. It had three previous station tours, here is its flight history: Flight 1 STS-79 1996 Sep 16-1996 Sep 25 (Apt, not used) Flight 2 STS-83 1997 Apr 4-1997 Apr 8 (Spacelab, Gernhardt, not used) Flight 3 STS-94 1997 Jul 1-1997 Jul 17 (Spacelab, Gernhardt, not used) Flight 4 STS-91 1998 Jun 2-1998 Jun 12 (Chang, not used) Flight 5 STS-95 1998 Oct 29-1998 Nov 7 (Robinson, not used) Flight 6 STS-96 1999 May 27-1999 Jun 6 (Barry, 1 EVA) Flight 7 STS-101 2000 May 19-2000 May 29 (Horowitz, not used) Flight 8 STS-106 2000 Sep 8-2000 Sep 20 (Backup, not used) Flight 9 STS-97 2000 Dec 1-2000 Dec 11 (Tanner, 3 EVA) Flight 10 STS-100 2001 Apr 19-2001 Jul 25 (ISS tour, Hadfield (2), down on 104) Flight 11 STS-109 2002 Mar 1-2002 Mar 12 (HST, Massimino(2)) Flight 12 STS-111 2002 Jun 5-2005 Aug 9 (ISS tour, Sellers (3),Pettit(2), down on 114) Flight 13 STS-126 2008 Nov 15-2009 Nov 27 (ISS tour, down on 129, not used) Flight 14 STS-132 2010 May 14-present (ISS tour; Williams (1), Hoshide (2), Parmitano(2))
EMU 3011 incorporates the PLSS 1011 backpack – this contains most of the systems and you can think of it as the core of the suit considered as its own spaceship, with the other components as a relatively inert bubble containing the human occupant. Before the EMU 3000 series nomenclature was adopted, PLSS 1011 flew multiple times:
Flight 1 STS 61-B 1985 Nov 27-1985 Dec 3 EMU 1070/PLSS 1011 (Spring, 1 EVA) Flight 2 STS-26R 1988 Sep 29-1988 Oct 3 EMU 1090/PLSS 1011 (Lounge, not used) Flight 3 STS-27R 1988 Dec 2-1988 Dec 6 EMU 1090/PLSS 1011 (Ross, not used) Flight 4 STS-29R 1989 Mar 13-1989 Mar 18 EMU 1090/PLSS 1011 (Springer, not used) Flight 5 STS-28R 1989 Aug 8-1989 Aug 13 EMU 1098/PLSS 1011 (Brown, not used) Flight 6 STS-36 1990 Feb 28-1990 Mar 4 EMU 2008/PLSS 1011 (Thout, not used) Flight 7 STS-41 1990 Oct 6-1990 Oct 10 EMU 2008/PLSS 1011 (Akers, not used) Flight 8 STS-39 1991 Apr 28-1991 May 6 EMU 2008/PLSS 1011 (Harbaugh, not used) Flight 9 STS-48 1991 Sep 12-1991 Sep 18 EMU 2008/PLSS 1011 (Buchli, not used) Flight 10 STS-46 1992 Jul 31-1992 Aug 8 EMU 2021/PLSS 1011 (Chang, not used) Flight 11 STS-73 1995 Oct 20-1995 Nov 5 EMU 2034/PLSS 1011 (Coleman, not used)
So, this PLSS has flown a total of 25 times in space over 28 years – although of course there’s a bit of a “grandfather’s axe” paradox involved as it’s not clear how many of the original components remain.
Thanks to the hard work of volunteers from the British Amateur Television Club (BATC) videos of the presentations given to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium held in Guildford July 20-21, 2013 are now available to view online or download to your PC.
To access them follow these steps:
• Go to http://www.batc.tv/
• Click on the ‘Film Archive’ icon
• Select ‘AMSAT-UK 2013′ from the Category drop down menu
• Click ‘Select Category’
• Select the video you wish to watch
• Click on ‘Select Stream’
• Click the play icon ‘>’ on the player
• Clicking on the icon to the left of the player volume control will give you full screen display.
You can also download a video file to your PC by right-clicking on the ‘Click Here’ link under the player.
AMSAT-UK publishes a colour A4 newsletter, OSCAR News, that is full of Amateur Satellite information. A sample issue of OSCAR News can be downloaded here.
Join AMSAT-UK online at http://tinyurl.com/JoinAMSAT-UK/
Graham Shirville G3VZV, Gerard Auvray F6FAO and Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG
It was announced during the QB50 presentation at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium that two CubeSats, one carrying a linear transponder for SSB/CW, the other a FM voice transponder, should be launched into a 600 km orbit in the first half of 2014.
The QB50 project team has announced that on July 19, 2013 they signed a Memorandum of Understanding with AMSAT-UK, AMSAT-Francophone, and AMSAT-NL to enable two amateur radio payloads to fly on two 2-Unit CubeSats in the first half of 2014. These precursor CubeSats, which have still to be named, will be placed into a conventional 600 km 98o orbit in advance of the main mission. This allows for the testing of key satellite and payload components ahead of the full QB50 mission. In addition, the precursor mission allows for experimentation and validation of operational concept of the QB50 mission. Next to these objectives the amateur radio payloads will be operated as well. At the beginning of the mission, the various payloads onboard the spacecraft will be operated in an alternating fashion, whilst the amateur radio payloads will be operated as the primary payload of the spacecraft once all QB50 related experimentation has been concluded.
The main mission of QB50 has the scientific objective to study in situ the temporal and spatial variations of a number of key constituents and parameters in the lower thermosphere (90-320 km) with a network of about 40 double and 10 triple CubeSats. These, university built, CubeSats will be launched into a 320km circular orbit, will be separated by a few hundred kilometres and carry identical science sensors. The sensors will monitor parameters that will greatly increase our knowledge and understanding of this little explored region of the E and F layers of the Ionosphere. QB50 will also study the re-entry process by measuring a number of key parameters during re-entry and by comparing predicted and actual CubeSat trajectories and orbital lifetimes.
The AMSAT-Francophone (AMSAT-F) payload for one of the satellites will be a U/V (435/145 MHz) FM transponder. It will also transmit FX25 telemetry at 9600 bps. This secondary payload will be also used in several satellites in the main constellation as their main receiver and transmitter.
The AMSAT-NL payload, on the other precursor satellite, will incorporate a linear U/V transponder core.
The QB50 spacecraft in the main, short duration, mission will, generally, have downlinks operating on frequencies in the 435-438 MHz Amateur Satellite Service allocation and some are expected to use 2.4 GHz. They will be notified to the ITU as a Belgian network after having been coordinated by the IARU Frequency Coordination Panel. Some of these will also, on occasions, act as FM voice relays during their missions.
The event takes place on Saturday/Sunday July 20-21 at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ, UK and is open to all.
KickSat Sprite satellites enable individuals to have their own satellite orbiting in space for very low cost, typically £200 ($300). Andrew Vaudin’s presentation should start at 9:50 AM on Sunday and is understood to include a demonstration.
AMSAT-UK 
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