UK CubeSail Amateur / Ham Radio Satellite

CubeSail is an exciting, ground-breaking educational satellite project at the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) that hopes to launch into a 680 km Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) from India in December 2014 

A key feature is the deployment of a 25 square metre sail structure, which will be used to demonstrate the propulsive effect of solar radiation pressure (i.e. solar sailing) and will demonstrate the de-orbiting capabilities of the sail as a drag augmentation device. CubeSail will be the first launched three-axis stabilised solar sail.

CubeSail will build on small satellite experience at SSC, such as the STRaND-1 nanosatellite, launched on February 25, 2013. Furthermore, the mission critical sail deployment mechanism has undergone an extensive testing and validation process as part of the ESA Gossamer Deorbiter project carried out at SSC. The CubeSail project is also financially and technically supported by world leading industrial partners, Astrium and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.

CubeSail is a 3U CubeSat project with a 6kg mass, the mission aims are:

• Technology Demonstration 1: Deployable Sail- The CubeSail satellite will deploy a large (up to 5×5 metre) square aluminised Kapton sail, using novel CFRP deployable booms.
• Technology Demonstration 2: Solar Sailing – The CubeSail mission will demonstrate ‘solar sailing’ in LEO by utilising the solar radiation pressure on the reflective sail to change its orbital inclination.
• Technology Demonstration 3: Attitude Control CubeSail is equipped with 3-axis-stabilizing attitude determination and control system. A novel capability of this system is pointing via a centre-of-mass/centre-of-pressure (COM/COP) offset.
• Technology Demonstration 4: Drag Deorbiting -The satellite will deorbit much more quickly than otherwise due to its deployable sail. Satellite pointing will be optimized by the attitude control system for maximum drag.
• Outreach – The satellite will provide beacons for which amateur satellite users and ham radio users will be able to receive. Proposing a 9600 Bit/s AX.25 RC-BPSK downlink  

The IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel have coordinated a downlink frequency of 435.240 MHz.

CubeSail - http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ssc/research/space_vehicle_control/cubesail/

AMSAT-UK - http://amsat-uk.ork/

Wirral Grammar School for Girls launch 434 MHz balloon

Pupils at Wirral Grammar School for Girls have launched a High Altitude Balloon with 434 MHz telemetry and Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) transmitters  

Launched on Wednesday July 16 2014 at around 11:00 BST from Middletown Hill near Welshpool. The balloon will be a 1200g Hwoyee with Helium.

Transmitter Details 

Balloon with 434MHz telemetry and Slow Scan TV Launched by Wirral Grammar School for Girls

Callsign: WG3
Frequency: 434.300 MHz
Mode: RTTY 50,7n2 470 Hz shift

Callsign: WG3TV
Frequency: 434.350 MHz
Mode: RTTY 300,8n2 610 Hz shift SSDV + telemetry

The balloon will carry a Raspberry Pi A with RFM22B based daughterboard. The radio coverage area could extend up to a radius of 700 km which would make it receivable throughout the British Isles. 

Online real-time tracking of balloons - http://spacenear.us/tracker/

Beginners Guide to Tracking using dl-fldigi software - http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:tracking_guide

Received SSDV images - http://ssdv.habhub.org/

Slow Scan Digital Video (SSDV) Guide - http://ukhas.org.uk/guides:ssdv

FUNcube-1 – One millionth packet milestone!

Many stations, including amateur / ham radio stations have been receiving the telemetry transmitted by FUNcube-1, which has now been in orbit for 221 days. The spacecraft, which has been operating nominally since launch, is providing on-board health and science data for the many schools and colleges who are already participating in the project around the world.

Since launch, data has been received by more than 650 stations. The one millionth data packet milestone has been reached, adding to an online data telemetry store of 256mb.

The FUNcube team have been successful in capturing almost 25% of all the telemetry transmitted including almost all of the Whole Orbit Data. 

The FUNcube team are seeking additional receiving stations in the FUNcube Ground Station Network. This applies especially to anyone near the poles or who is located on an island in the middle of ocean. Their involvement would help improve the rate of data capture still further.

The FUNcube records show that there were three stations who actually managed to upload the same one millionth packet to the data warehouse. They are G0EID, OM3BC and DL3SER. 

Data Warehouse – Telemetry Archive - http://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/

Dashboard App – Telemetry Decoder - http://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/

FUNcube website - http://www.funcube.org.uk/

FUNcube Yahoo Group - http://amsat-uk.org/funcube/yahoo-group/