Vega Amateur Radio CubeSats PW-Sat, Masat-1 and Robusta
ESA’s Education Office is inviting the CubeSat community to send their notifications of interest for a new initiative involving the development of educational picosatellites and the provision of deployers and launch services. The call closes on 7 September 2012.
An English language NHK TV news story covers the amateur radio CubeSat FITSAT-1 also known as NIWAKA which launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 21.
Takushi Tanaka JA6AVG and FITSAT
FITSAT-1 has multiple downlinks, CW on 437.250 MHz, AX.25 on 437.445 MHz and a 4 watt high speed data transmitter on 5840 MHz capable of sending a 640 by 480 pixel VGA JPEG image in 6 seconds.
In addition it carries high power LEDs that will be driven with 100W pulses to produce extremely bright flashes. These, it is hoped, will be observable by the unaided eye or with small binoculars. Both the 5840 MHz and optical downlinks have a high power consumption so they may only be activated when in range of the ground station in Japan. It use a neodymium magnet for attitude control.
The CubeSat will remain on the ISS until September when it will be deployed by Japanese astronaut and radio amateur Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI using the ISS Kibo robot arm.
FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA) is mounted in a JEM-Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) with the amateur radio TechEdSat and F-1 CubeSats. In a second deployment pod are WeWish and a scientific 2U CubeSat Raiko. The CubeSats will be deployed into a 400 km orbit and should have a lifetime of 3 or 4 months before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere and burning up.
In this video NHK interviews Takushi Tanaka JA6AVG and students from the Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT) about the project.
Watch NHK – Tiny Satellites, Big Possibilities
FITSAT-1 information, pictures and deployment movie http://www.fit.ac.jp/~tanaka/fitsat.shtml
Kibo Robot Arm http://kibo.jaxa.jp/en/about/kibo/rms/
FITSAT-1 plans to use LED’s to signal in Morse code
Engineers of the future talk to the International Space Station using Amateur Radio
YNN (channel 9) reports on an “out of this world” amateur radio contact between campers attending RIT’s Everyday Engineering Program in Rochester and astronaut Sunita Williams KD5PLB
Sunita was operating the Kenwood TM-D700 ham radio station located in the International Space Station’s Service Module using the callsign NA1SS on 145.800 MHz. The Everyday Engineering Program station at the Rochester Institute of Technology had the callsign W2RIT.
The Women in Engineering Program at Rochester Institute of Technology (WE@RIT) is dedicated to increasing the representation of women engineers and women leaders within the engineering profession. Founded in 2003, WE@RIT strives towards achieving gender parity within the Kate Gleason College of Engineering and hosts a comprehensive series of pre-engineering outreach, recruitment, and community building programs in support of this vision.
http://www.rit.edu/http://www.rit.edu/
Watch RIT on TV News: Chat with International Space Station
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDvQnA4WTxI
CubeSat NEE-01 Pegasus
A Chinese rocket due to launch in the 2nd quarter of 2013 will carry CubeSat NEE-01 Pegasus from Ecuador.
Ronnie Nader with Elisse Nader and CubeSat
The NEE-01 Pegasus engineering team was led by Cmdr. Ronnie Nader, Ecuador’s first astronaut. The tiny 1U CubeSat (10cm cube) has a large fold-out solar array, a world first, and carries a 902 MHz band 720p HD TV transmitter, another world first for a CubeSat. Also operating in the same band will be a beacon that will send a Morse Code ID, a SSTV image and Ecuador’s national anthem.
The raw aluminum structure of the CubeSat was donated by Professor Bob Twiggs KE6QMD. After launch the 10 by 10 by 10 cm NEE-01 Pegasus will deploy its 75 cm fold-out solar panels, the largest to be flown on a CubeSat.
As part of the educational outreach objectives of the satellite video of the Earth taken by the HD camera will be made available to school students in Ecuador.
The satellite will send two signals that will be received and decoded by the EXA’s HERMES-A ground station in Guayaquil and then uploaded live to the Internet using Facebook and Twitter; the first signal will contain text book questions and the second will contain an image related to the question. If the students are able to answer the question correctly they will be granted access to the video camera on board the spacecraft and will be able to see earth from space as the astronauts see it in their space missions. More advanced students will have access to the pure radio signal so they can try decoding it by themselves.
The satellite featured in the July 15 edition of the El Murcurio newspaper.
Read the El Murcurio newspaper article in Google English http://tinyurl.com/Ecuador-in-Space
NEE-01 Pegasus on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NEE01PEGASO/
IAC2011 Paper http://exa.academia.edu/RonnieNader/Papers/795135/NEE-01_PEGASUS_The_first_Ecuadorian_Satellite
NEE-01 Pegasus will monitor near-earth objects http://www.uk.amsat.org/6932
Italian Microsat to Deploy Six Amateur Radio Satellites http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=7717
International Space Station Flight Engineer Joe Acaba KE5DAR used amateur radio to speak with high school students participating in a summer program called Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars, or WISH.
The students, selected from across the country, were attending briefings and engaging in competitive hands-on engineering activities related to space exploration and research.
Watch Joe Acaba Speaks with WISH Students
WISH – Encouraging science, technology, engineering and mathematics http://www.uk.amsat.org/8495
ARISS contact with STEM High School Aerospace Scholars, Houston, TX
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/july2012/ariss_event_1007.htm
NASA WISH Press release http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/jun/HQ_12-209_WISH.html
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) http://ariss.rac.ca/
Students from Middlesex University Robotics department obtained their Foundation Licences after a Verulam Amateur Radio Club (VARC) course and went on to win UAVforge.
The amateur radio Foundation training course was part of the preparations by members of the HALO team to take part in the international UAVForge competition in the USA.
This is an international drone competition and involved the team taking on some of the world’s top engineers and universities. They succeeded in becoming the highest scoring team at UAVforge.
The HALO team comprised:
Witold Mielniczek M6HUJ
Mantas Brazinskas M6LTU
Mehmet Ali Erbil M6DUC
Dr Stephen Prior M6ESY
Their HALO Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) used a Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) system with a 900 MHz data downlink and a 5.8 GHz video downlink along with a 1280 MHz video feed.
Watch DARPA UAVforge Milestone 3 Live Fly Video – Team HALO HD
This video was shot from HALO and relayed over 3.2 km via a 1280 MHz live video feed using a 2.5 W Video TX with a Yagi antenna positioned 30 m up a tree.
Watch UAVforge 2012 Team HALO Attempt 2
Further information including a photo of some of the Middlesex University radio amateurs can be seen at http://www.mdx.ac.uk/aboutus/news-events/news/uavforge-final.aspx
Team HALO Win UAVForge Competition 2012 http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/robotics/uncategorized/
team-halo-win-uavforge-competition/
A 2009 paper on Development of a Co-Axial Tri-Rotor UAV http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/2873/1/Prior_-Development_of_a_Co-Axial
_Tri-Rotor_UAV_-_Middlesex_University_%28compressed%29.pdf
UAVforge http://www.uavforge.net/uavhtml/index.php
Verulam Amateur Radio Club (VARC) http://www.radioclubs.net/verulam/
10 year old Foundation licence holder interviewed on TV about his amateur radio DIY space projects http://www.amsat-uk.org/?p=8821/
AMSAT-UK 
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