Category: Ham Satellite news

Amsat NA har nu säkrat en uppskjutning åt sin nya satellit FOX-1.

Följande finns att läsa i nedanstående nyhetsbrev.

Project ELaNa, NASA’s “Educational Launch of NanoSat” managed by the
Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center, announced on
February 10 that the AMSAT Fox-1 cubesat has been selected to join
the program.

NASA will work with AMSAT in a collaborative agreement where NASA
will cover the integration and launch costs of satellites deemed to
have merit in support of their strategic and educational goals.

Watch for full details to be published in the AMSAT Journal.

AMSAT teamed with the ARRL to write and deliver the 159 page educa-
tional proposal to NASA. Letters documenting the importance of AMSAT’s
satellites in the education programs at the ARRL and also at the Clay
Center for Science and Technology at the Dexter and Southfield schools
in Brookline, MA, were important parts of our proposal.

AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW said, “The ELaNA Launch oppor-
tunity marks AMSAT’s return to space after the conclusion of the
successful ARISSat-1/KEDR flight. We need to get the flight Fox-1,
along with an operational flight backup satellite, built, integrat-
ed, tested, and delivered. Our ability to provide a spacecraft and
get it launched is dependent upon the active support of our donors
who wish to see Fox-1 fly.”

AMSAT Vice-President of Engineering, Tony Monteiro, AA2TX noted this
will provide a launch opportunity for AMSAT’s next generation of FM
repeater satellites with features and operation beyond the experience
of AO-51. AMSAT’s Fox-1 Engineering Team is making progress developing
the advanced satellite that will provide these features:

+ Fox-1 is designed to operate in sunlight without batteries once
   the battery system fails. This applies lessons learned from AO-51
   and ARISSat-1 operations.

+ In case of IHU failure Fox-1 will continue to operate its FM
   repeater in a basic, ‘zombie sat’ mode, so that the repeater
   remains on-the-air.

+ Fox-1 is designed as the immediate replacement for AO-51. Its U/V
   (Mode B) transponder will make it even easier to work with modest
   equipment.

+ From the ground user’s perspective, the same FM amateur radio
   equipment used for AO-51 may be used for Fox-1.

+ Extending the design, Fox-2 will benefit from the development work
   of Fox-1 by adding more sophisticated power management and Software
   Defined Transponder (SDX) communications systems.

The Fox-1 Project presents an opportunity to literally put your call-
sign on the Fox hardware. AMSAT is looking for major donations to help
underwrite the cost of solar cells/panels, one of the more significant
expenses of the project.

These solar cells are needed for the flight unit as well as for the a
flight spare. As Fox-1 will have solar cells on all six sides of the
spacecraft and given the relatively small surface area available on
each side (at most 4″ by 4″ per side), AMSAT needs to invest in high
efficiency solar cells to gain as much power as possible to operate
the spacecraft.

Several opportunities to make your donation to keep amateur radio in
space include:

+ Return the form sent with the letter to reply with your donation
  for the Fox-1 Project.
  – All donations over $40 will receive a Fox pin.
  – Donations of $120 or more qualify you for AMSAT President’s Club

+ Call Martha at the AMSAT Office +1-888-FB AMSAT (1-888-322-6728)
+ Paypal donation widget on the main page at: http://www.amsat.org
+ Paypal donation widget for Project Fox at:
   http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/fox/
+ You can also go to the Paypal site and send your donation to
  martha@amsat.org.
+ The AMSAT Store: http://www.amsat-na.com/store/categories.php

Project Fox web site provide a good overview of the technical progress
of the new satellite: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/fox/

Nu närmar det sig för uppskjutning av Vega.  Datum satt till 13/2

ESA’s new, small launcher will carry nine satellites into orbit on its very first flight: Italian space agency’s LARES and ALMASat-1 with seven CubeSats from European universities.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Vega/

Vid nästa besök på ISS kommer en Rysk minisatellit att vara med för att därefter sändas ut i rymden.

Datum är satt till  25/26 Januari.

Något som verkar rätt intressant är att (om jag förstått rätt) så ska satelliten placeras i en banhöjd på 500 km efter att lasten har lämnats av vid ISS som ligger runt 400 km.  Det verkar som att Progress M-13M ska användas för att få upp den till rätt bana.

För att läsa mer om satelliten.

http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/geophis/19.html

http://www.uk.amsat.org/3910

ARISSat-1/KEDR Goes Silent

Reception reports indicate that ARISSat-1/KEDR has stopped trans-
mitting on Wednesday, January 4, 2012. The last full telemetry 
captured and reported to the ARISSatTLM web site at 06:02:14 UTC 
on January 4 were received from ground stations as the satellite 
passed over Japan.

See: http://www.arissattlm.org/live (full telemetry display)
See: http://www.arissattlm.org/mobile (condensed telemetry)

Telemetry reports showed that the temperature aboard ARISSat-1/KEDR 
had been rising as atmospheric drag began to affect the satellite.
Final temperatures received via ARISSatTLM reported this data:

IHU           75 ° C / 167.0 ° F
PSU           76 ° C / 168.8 ° F
RF            88 ° C / 190.4 ° F
Control Panel 61 ° C / 141.8 ° F
Experiment    64 ° C / 147.2 ° F

Tracking data from Space Command gave a Predicted Decay Time 0700 GMT 
± 3 Hours on January 4. Telemetry report narrows the impact time 
window to about 4 hours. The predicted decay location is 12.7° S, 
354.3° E, an open part of the South Atlantic, well west of Angola. 
Send reports to the amsat-bb If you heard the satellite, even briefly, 
after 0600 UTC. This will help confirm the actual impact point.

Stations receiving telemetry from ARISSat-1 at any time over the 
last few months, please forward all of your .CSV telemetry files 
to telemetry AT arissattlm.org.

Konstantin, RN3ZF sent a reception report of his copy of the 0842 UTC 
pass that, "the telemetry was absent, voice messages were not legible, 
very silent and interrupted. Most likely, I saw last minutes in the 
life of the satellite."

Dee, NB2F reported, "Nothing heard from ARISSat-1/KEDR on any fre-
quency during the first USA pass at 16:00 UTC, January 4."

ARISSat-1/KEDR was deployed from the International Space Station on
August 3, 2011 during during EVA-29 on by Cosmonaut/Flight Engineers 
Sergei Volkov and Alexander Samokutyaev.

The satellite carried a student experiment from Kursk State University
in Russia which measured atmospheric density. Students from around the
world provided the voices for the FM voice announcements.

The amateur radio payload aboard ARISSat-1/KEDR achieved many "firsts"
for amateur radio in space:

+ First flight test of AMSAT Software Defined Transponder which trans-
  mitted simultaneous:

  - FM voice downlink cycling between student messages, spoken
    telemetry and SSTV from cameras on the spaceframe.

  - 16KHz bandwith linear transponder, 

  - CW beacon with telemetry and callsigns of radio amateurs noting
    their significant contributions to amateur radio in space.

  - Robust, forward error corrected 1K rate BPSK downlink with sat-
    ellite telemetry and Kursk experiment telemetry.

+ Development and release of the ARISSatTLM software for PC and Mac
  platforms enabled amateur stations worldwide with reliable reception
  of the BPSK telemetry, CW telemetry, display on the station's com-
  puter, and automatic upload of received data via the internet to the
  ARISSat engineering team.

+ A new Integrated Housekeeping Unit was developed and successfully
  flown.

+ A new Power Management System was developed and successfully
  flown.

AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW noted, ARISSat-1/KEDR marked a 
new type of satellite which has captured the attention of the national 
space agencies around the world for the unique educational opportunity 
we have been able to design, launch, and operate. By designing an edu-
cational mission aligned with NASA's Science, Technology, Engineering, 
and Mathematics goals amateur radio operators around the world have 
been able enjoy a new satellite in orbit."

ARISSat-1/KEDR Project Manager, Gould Smith, WA4SXM said, "Dozens of 
amateur radio volunteers, AMSAT, ARRL, NASA, and Energia teamed up for 
this successful mission to bring you the most unique and innovative 
amateur radio satellite mission. Congratulations to all who made 
ARISSat-1 successful!"

The Official ARISSat-1/KEDR web page: http://www.arissat1.org/
See DK3WN SatBlog for last signal report received by Tetsu san, 
JA0CAW in Japan:  http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=25125

[ANS thanks the ARISSat-1/KEDR Team for the above information]

Nu har NASA proberna Grail A och B placerat sig i bana runt Månen för att med stor precision utforska månen.

Mera information på  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/main/index.html

Det är flera månstudsstationer som har hört signalerna på frekvenserna 2279.503 samt 2280.592.