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AMSAT and ARISS are currently supporting a FundRazr campaign to raise $150,000 for critical radio infrastructure upgrades on ISS.
The upgrades are necessary to enable students to continue to talk to astronauts in space via Amateur Radio.
Already, $16,695 has been raised or about 10% towards the goal.
More Information - https://fundrazr.com/arissnextgen?ref=ab_e7Htwa_ab_47IcJ9
The receiver on the newly launched Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 CubeSat seems to have suffered a receiver failure that could render the satellite unusable.
AMSAT Engineers are continuing efforts to establish the cause of the problem and determine if a fix is possible.
“After a few days of tests, analysis, and discussion, it appears that Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 will not be commissioned as our fourth Fox-1 Amateur Radio satellite.
AMSAT Engineering will continue to evaluate and test Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 for solutions to the anomaly, and your continued help in providing telemetry is appreciated so that we can have data throughout her daily orbits, rather than limited data over our US stations. The data, analysis, and testing could lead to a positive solution, but at the very least will be important to AMSAT’s satellite programs in providing information that would help us and others avoid similar situations with future missions.”
In a post to AMSAT-BB, Buxton mentioned one suggestion of employing a high-power station to see if AO-95 could hear its signal, but he added that AMSAT Engineering would not be offering a blow-by-blow narrative of its efforts to restore the satellite to operating condition, “unless it is something of merit or actionable.”
Buxton noted that AMSAT’s resources are limited, and all involved are volunteers. “Most — if not all — of our remaining Fox-1 engineers are also involved in the GOLF-TEE project, so I have asked them to give that first priority with their available volunteer time in order to keep the schedule,” Buxton said. “AO-95 is in orbit now, and we can vary the amount of attention on her as resources allow in order to achieve both goals. If the results of our investigation point to a possibility of recovery, be it partial, full, or some workaround method, we would all like to see her working as much as the rest of you, and that is a driver for this investigation.”
Buxton said he anticipates that AMSAT Engineering will continue to seek the cause of the apparent receiver failure, “until we have results or reach a dead end, because of the inability to take the lid off and look inside AO-95.”
AMSAT has designated the 1U ExseedSatCubeSat, launched on 3rd December 2018 on a Falcon 9 vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, as VUsat-OSCAR 96 (VO-96).
ExseedSat was built by a team of Indian radio amateurs, including Ashhar Farhan, VU2ESE; George Phillips, VU2GT; Gurudatta Panda, VU3GDP; Sasi Bhushan, VU3ELR, and Nitin Muttin, VU3TYG. Initial telemetry has been received around the world. The downlink is 145.900 MHz for the FM repeater (CTCSS = 67 Hz) and digipeater, plus telemetry, and 435.340 MHz for FM repeater and digipeater uplink.
More Information - http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=636
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