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Domain: amsat.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to amsat.org.
Stories · 25
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Celebrating Yuri Gagarin's 1961 Flight Into Space
DeviceGuru writes "The 50th anniversary of the first-ever manned space flight, by Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, is being celebrated on April 12 with a two-day early activation of the ARISSat-1 ham radio satellite aboard the International Space Station. If you can get your hands on a scanner or ham handy-talkie you can join in the celebration by listening to prerecorded messages from the satellite as it orbits the globe tonight and tomorrow." -
13 Pico-Satellites to Launch June 28th
leighklotz writes "The CalPoly CubeSat Program announced a launch date for its 13 amateur satellites: June 28, 2006 at 19:39:11Z, from the Kazakstan Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Russian DNEPR-1LV rocket. The satellites are made from a kit, and are 10cm cubes." Read on for more info, including links to many of the individual satellite projects.leighklotz continues: "There are also pictures of 14 satellites and info about some of them:
- ION, University of Illinois
- RINCON, University of Arizona
- ICE Cube 1, Cornell University
- KUTESat [also] University of Kansas
- nCube nCube Norweigian University of Science and Technology
- HAUSAT-1 Hankuk Aviation University
- SEEDS Nihon University
- CP1 and CP2 Cal Poly
- AeroCube 1 The Aerospace Corporation
- Voyager University of Hawaii
- ICE Cube 2 Cornell University
These folks have a list of ongoing CubeSat projects. And as always AMSAT is a good organization to join if you have any interest in using or building your own satellites."
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13 Pico-Satellites to Launch June 28th
leighklotz writes "The CalPoly CubeSat Program announced a launch date for its 13 amateur satellites: June 28, 2006 at 19:39:11Z, from the Kazakstan Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Russian DNEPR-1LV rocket. The satellites are made from a kit, and are 10cm cubes." Read on for more info, including links to many of the individual satellite projects.leighklotz continues: "There are also pictures of 14 satellites and info about some of them:
- ION, University of Illinois
- RINCON, University of Arizona
- ICE Cube 1, Cornell University
- KUTESat [also] University of Kansas
- nCube nCube Norweigian University of Science and Technology
- HAUSAT-1 Hankuk Aviation University
- SEEDS Nihon University
- CP1 and CP2 Cal Poly
- AeroCube 1 The Aerospace Corporation
- Voyager University of Hawaii
- ICE Cube 2 Cornell University
These folks have a list of ongoing CubeSat projects. And as always AMSAT is a good organization to join if you have any interest in using or building your own satellites."
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13 Pico-Satellites to Launch June 28th
leighklotz writes "The CalPoly CubeSat Program announced a launch date for its 13 amateur satellites: June 28, 2006 at 19:39:11Z, from the Kazakstan Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Russian DNEPR-1LV rocket. The satellites are made from a kit, and are 10cm cubes." Read on for more info, including links to many of the individual satellite projects.leighklotz continues: "There are also pictures of 14 satellites and info about some of them:
- ION, University of Illinois
- RINCON, University of Arizona
- ICE Cube 1, Cornell University
- KUTESat [also] University of Kansas
- nCube nCube Norweigian University of Science and Technology
- HAUSAT-1 Hankuk Aviation University
- SEEDS Nihon University
- CP1 and CP2 Cal Poly
- AeroCube 1 The Aerospace Corporation
- Voyager University of Hawaii
- ICE Cube 2 Cornell University
These folks have a list of ongoing CubeSat projects. And as always AMSAT is a good organization to join if you have any interest in using or building your own satellites."
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13 Pico-Satellites to Launch June 28th
leighklotz writes "The CalPoly CubeSat Program announced a launch date for its 13 amateur satellites: June 28, 2006 at 19:39:11Z, from the Kazakstan Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Russian DNEPR-1LV rocket. The satellites are made from a kit, and are 10cm cubes." Read on for more info, including links to many of the individual satellite projects.leighklotz continues: "There are also pictures of 14 satellites and info about some of them:
- ION, University of Illinois
- RINCON, University of Arizona
- ICE Cube 1, Cornell University
- KUTESat [also] University of Kansas
- nCube nCube Norweigian University of Science and Technology
- HAUSAT-1 Hankuk Aviation University
- SEEDS Nihon University
- CP1 and CP2 Cal Poly
- AeroCube 1 The Aerospace Corporation
- Voyager University of Hawaii
- ICE Cube 2 Cornell University
These folks have a list of ongoing CubeSat projects. And as always AMSAT is a good organization to join if you have any interest in using or building your own satellites."
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13 Pico-Satellites to Launch June 28th
leighklotz writes "The CalPoly CubeSat Program announced a launch date for its 13 amateur satellites: June 28, 2006 at 19:39:11Z, from the Kazakstan Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Russian DNEPR-1LV rocket. The satellites are made from a kit, and are 10cm cubes." Read on for more info, including links to many of the individual satellite projects.leighklotz continues: "There are also pictures of 14 satellites and info about some of them:
- ION, University of Illinois
- RINCON, University of Arizona
- ICE Cube 1, Cornell University
- KUTESat [also] University of Kansas
- nCube nCube Norweigian University of Science and Technology
- HAUSAT-1 Hankuk Aviation University
- SEEDS Nihon University
- CP1 and CP2 Cal Poly
- AeroCube 1 The Aerospace Corporation
- Voyager University of Hawaii
- ICE Cube 2 Cornell University
These folks have a list of ongoing CubeSat projects. And as always AMSAT is a good organization to join if you have any interest in using or building your own satellites."
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13 Pico-Satellites to Launch June 28th
leighklotz writes "The CalPoly CubeSat Program announced a launch date for its 13 amateur satellites: June 28, 2006 at 19:39:11Z, from the Kazakstan Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Russian DNEPR-1LV rocket. The satellites are made from a kit, and are 10cm cubes." Read on for more info, including links to many of the individual satellite projects.leighklotz continues: "There are also pictures of 14 satellites and info about some of them:
- ION, University of Illinois
- RINCON, University of Arizona
- ICE Cube 1, Cornell University
- KUTESat [also] University of Kansas
- nCube nCube Norweigian University of Science and Technology
- HAUSAT-1 Hankuk Aviation University
- SEEDS Nihon University
- CP1 and CP2 Cal Poly
- AeroCube 1 The Aerospace Corporation
- Voyager University of Hawaii
- ICE Cube 2 Cornell University
These folks have a list of ongoing CubeSat projects. And as always AMSAT is a good organization to join if you have any interest in using or building your own satellites."
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U.S. Withholding Satellite Data
plover writes "Because of Congressional legislation passed quietly in 2003, the Air Force Space Command will no longer distribute space surveillance data via NASA. There was supposed a three year transitional period where the data was to be made available via a NASA web site, but earlier this month their transitional server went down hard, and NASA has decided to not rebuild it. (It was scheduled to be shut down on 31 March 2005 anyway.) The only way to obtain satellite data now is by signing up with the official Space-Track website. Part of the agreement to obtaining data from their site is that you agree to not redistribute their data. Of course, amateurs are still free to redistribute their observations, including those of classified satellites." -
Amateur Radio Satellite Echo In Orbit
Rob Carr writes "According to a bulletin posted on the ARRL web site, the amateur satellite currently called AO-Echo has reached orbit. Ground controllers have already made contact once with the satellite, although it will be some time before the satellite is ready for general amateur radio operator use. Multiple communication modes will be available on this microsat, including FM, PSK31, and SSB. More information can be found on the AmSat web site." -
Building a Personal Clean Room?
eagleyezx asks: "I have a rather large basement with nothing currently sitting in it (I moved all my crud to my garage). Since I am really into space and satellites, I have a satellite all designed. It's kinda based on one of the Amsat designs, but all it really does it beep, just like Sputnik. However, I would need a sterile clean room to build one that would function properly and not go beserk in orbit. I know everyone out there has thought about this at least once? Has anyone ever built a room like this? Any suggestions on equipment?" If you had the drive to do something like this, what would you need to do to be able to build a workshop that would even come close to "clean room" standards. Has anyone ever built an airlock on the cheap? -
Amateur Mars Satellite
Hobbyspacer writes "The German AMSAT-DL group recently announced formal approval of the Phase 5-A project to send a spacecraft to Mars in the 2007 or 2009 launch window. The spacecraft will use the same structure as AO-40 (formerly Phase 3-D) that was launched into earth orbit in the fall of 2000. Like AO-40 the Mars probe will piggyback on an Ariane 5 launch and use the same 400 N propulsion system. (I expect they will solve the problem that caused the engine misfiring that nearly destroyed the spacecraft.) The Phase 3-E project was also approved to follow up AO-40 and to test various techniques and technologies for the Mars mission. The document P5A-to-Mars!(712k pdf) describes the technical challenges and possible solutions for such an ambitious mission. AO-40 cost several million dollars and the Mars probe should cost considerably more, requiring they obtain funds outside of AMSAT members and the ham radio community. The long list, though, of spectacular contributions made by AMSAT to the development of micro sats and space communications gives the program high credibility." -
Satellite Back From The Dead
Papa Legba writes "Just ran across this amazing story about an amateur satellite that has returned from the dead. AMSAT-OSCAR 7 was launched in 1974 for radio hobbyists to use. In 1981 the onboard batteries died and the satellite went silent. Then on June 21st 2002, 20 years later, a hobbyist testing some new equipment made an amazing discovery. AMSAT-OSCAR 7 is live once more, both broadcasting and accepting signals. The theory expounded is that the dead battery short that took the satellite offline has cleared and it is now only running on its solar cells. While this does restrict it to daytime use, it is amazing that it works at all. " This was in the science section before - but worth the front page. -
OSCAR 7 is Alive
AB3A writes :"Originally launched November 15, 1974, OSCAR 7 was long thought to be dead from natural causes (radiation, battery failure, space junk, etc.). However, AMSAT reports that it has recently been heard on the air! This probably isn't a record, but it does rank right up there with spacecraft such as Pioneer. I wonder how many other satellites out there have been given up for dead but are still functional at some reduced capacity?" -
GPS Test Successful From Outer Space
An anonymous reader writes: "AMSAT reports that the GPS experiment on the international amateur radio spacecraft AO-40 has undergone successful testing." A note on the site reads in part: "This experiment supplied and sponsored by NASA, is to determine if it is possible to get positional data outside of the GPS ring of satellites. There are two GPS receivers on AO-40, the A receiver for receiving signals around apogee and the B receiver for signal reception around perigee. ... A signal on the apogee receiver from about 52 Thousand Kilometres out with good signal levels has been received, further data is being gathered and those downloaded so far are being analysed. If this experiment goes the way I expect, it will revolutionise the way we use GPS in Space. Many future HEO spacecraft will be able to take advantage of GPS for autonomous navigation and stationkeeping." This is one of the most interesting applications of GPS technology I've heard about -- nice way to reuse what was intended as a terrestrial navigation aid. -
Packet Radio On ISS Beeping Away
mzac writes: "The amateur radio abord the ISS is now activated and is digipeating packet radio. With a simple 5W handheld and a 3/4 wave 2 meter antenna, the signal can be received quite easily. Anyone who doesn't have a amateur radio license but does have a scanner can probably also receive the signals with a handheld scanner and the stock antenna. Using satellite tracking software and NTP software to sync your computer's clock is a good way of knowing when the ISS will pass over." (Read more.)"Transmitting to the station is a bit more difficult as everyone is trying to transmit to the station on each pass, but many people have made it through.
Frequencies for the ISS are:
- Worldwide downlink for voice and packet: 145.80MHz
- Worldwide packet uplink: 145.99MHz
- Region 1 voice uplink: 145.20MHz
- Region 2 & 3 voice uplink: 144.49MHz
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Oscar-40 Ham Satellite Transmitting Again
Bruce Perens K6BP writes: "The Phase 3-D Amateur satellite, called "Oscar 40" now that it is in orbit, is back on the air. A ground station sent a reset command and a command to turn on a microwave transmitter, which worked on the first attempt. The transmitter is sending an unmodulated carrier until telemetry software is reloaded, but it's clear from the doppler shift of the signal and the loss-of-signal time as the transmitter crosses the horizon that the signal is coming from the satellite's orbit. The ground controller will now reload the flight computer software and bootstrap the main flight computer. It will take a while to reload both computers and to investigate problems with the satellite, as this is complicated by the attitude and orbit of the satellite - right now it's not actively stabilized and is only pointing the antennas toward the Earth during part of its orbit, and of course it's only above the horizon from any ground controller's perspective during part of each orbit." Read on for a bit more on this promising news.""A board of inquiry will convene to investigate the loss-of-signal incident and to change procedures to avoid another such incident with this or a future Amateur satellite. General information about the satellite can be found at www.amsat.org. The following announcement is from www.amsat-dl.org:
The Santa Claus brought AO40 back On Air! At 2000-12-25 21:45 command station Ian, ZL1AOX sent a RESET command through L-band and an initialization block to switch the S2 S-Band transmitter On. Just after the first attempt the S2 beacon came on 2401.305 MHz, Signal was about S5 to 6 which was comparable to when S2 was heard last during testing The S2 beacon produced a steady signal and from the doppler wobbling it is also clear that it is in fact coming from AO-40. Ian ZL1AOX reported that he was able to copy and observe (with Spectrogram) the S2 beacon. His LOS time was 2000-12-26 03:45:15. Predicted LOS from NORAD set #12 keps gave 5 secs later. Approx distance was 61,470 Kms. Today, 2000-12-26 at about 16:05 UTC, ZL1AOX will acquire AO-40 shortly after perigee with a reasonably good squint angle. He will than start reloading the IPS software. Until than the beacon will not carry any telemetry, just a carrier. Once the bootloader for IPS is up, you will see "X" blocks in the telemetry until IPS is completely loaded... (Thanks to DB2OS for this information)."
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Ham Satellite Suffers Failures, Is Silent
Bruce Perens writes "The Phase 3-D satellite, renamed Oscar 40 once it reached orbit, has suffered multiple failures and has stopped transmitting telemetry. It is not yet known if the satellite is responding to commands. The main telemetry beacon on 145.898 MHz was operating poorly after separation and now may be transmitting a weak unmodulated carrier. A fuel valve appears to be sticking closed and appeared to be only 10% open after multiple operation commands. Then, the first flight burn was 3 minutes too long due to another, not-yet-understood problem, boosting the craft into a higher orbit than expected (not yet a problem in itself as the final orbit is to be even higher). A backup flight computer, itself an experiment to see if the CPU would be radiation-hard enough to survive, has its RAM corrupted every 1 or 2 days in orbit as it crosses radiation belts and currently is not set up to reboot automaticaly. The primary flight computer may have crashed. An expected watchdog timer reset did not occur, but this would be the case if the satellite was receiving some commands.""We may have to wait until after Christmas for another reset. Controllers have not transmitted a hard reset command yet, which would work even with the flight computer crashed, as they wish to explore other options. The satellite would automaticaly cycle through a number of frequencies and antennas if it does not get any commands for 10 orbits, and controllers hope to re-establish control as this happens. A hard reset could delay that option.
"The satellite waited several years for launch due to Arianne 5's early failures and a revised accelleration profile for the booster that required a redisign of the satellite frame to take additional stress. Aging may have effected components such as the fuel valves. Telemetry stopped suddenly during work on the 400 Newton kick motor, leading to speculation that the satellite may have suffered physical damage, but NORAD radar profiles indicate that it has not exploded.
Problems with Phase 3-D are bad news for hams, who raised $1 Million for the satellite, the 40th in the series of Amateur satellites launched since 1962. Phase 3-D has been criticized for pu ting too many eggs in one basket, unlike other small ham satellites built on a low budget and more easily launched as hitch-hikers with other payloads than the multi-ton Phase 3-D.
"The core development team urges patience. The satellite is in a stable orbit in one piece, just where it is expected to be, as confirmed by NORAD. They can take lots of time to debug it where it is, and hope to restore its functionality.
"For bulletins, see the AMSAT web site.
"A number of other ham satellites remain operational, and astronauts are currently using a ham station on the International Space Station to speak with people on the ground."
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Two For The Sky: Satellites For HAM And You
MaggieL -- KB3DXS writes: "The amateur radio satellite Phase 3D (now officially AMSAT-Oscar 40 ) was launched [Wednesday] night on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is now safely in its intended original orbit. AO-40 is the culmination of a ten-year long project to orbit a sophisticated, highly programmable communications platform for amateur radio use. Over the next 270 days engines on board the satellite will gradually place it in its intended final orbit. I received some of the initial transmissions from the satellite this morning at my station ... this is *way* cool. Amateur radio is still thriving, despite fears among the old-school hams who think that the Internet has killed ham radio." Added to which, as btbuzzard advises, you can now get your very own personal communications satellite carried by a device which would have been a lot scarier launching 10 or so years ago. -
Two For The Sky: Satellites For HAM And You
MaggieL -- KB3DXS writes: "The amateur radio satellite Phase 3D (now officially AMSAT-Oscar 40 ) was launched [Wednesday] night on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is now safely in its intended original orbit. AO-40 is the culmination of a ten-year long project to orbit a sophisticated, highly programmable communications platform for amateur radio use. Over the next 270 days engines on board the satellite will gradually place it in its intended final orbit. I received some of the initial transmissions from the satellite this morning at my station ... this is *way* cool. Amateur radio is still thriving, despite fears among the old-school hams who think that the Internet has killed ham radio." Added to which, as btbuzzard advises, you can now get your very own personal communications satellite carried by a device which would have been a lot scarier launching 10 or so years ago. -
New HamSat
tarball writes: "A new Amateur Radio Satellite launched about 30 minutes ago. This a very nice piece of work, for your use, free of charge, if you have an amateur radio license. All countries. No exceptions. See http://www.amsat.org/." Nifty. -
AMSAT Phase 3D Launch Set For Holloween
N2UX writes "The long awaited and much anticipated Amateur Radio Phase 3d satellite from AMSAT has been given a launch date of October 31. Space craft details are here" -
AMSAT Phase 3D Launch Set For Holloween
N2UX writes "The long awaited and much anticipated Amateur Radio Phase 3d satellite from AMSAT has been given a launch date of October 31. Space craft details are here" -
AMSAT Phase 3D Launch Set For Holloween
N2UX writes "The long awaited and much anticipated Amateur Radio Phase 3d satellite from AMSAT has been given a launch date of October 31. Space craft details are here" -
Ham Radio Repeater On The Moon?
kd5biv writes "QRZ.com has an interesting article on Martin Reeves' project to put a small amateur radio repeater on the surface of the Moon. The project includes a Surveyor-style lander with a UHF translator, a directional antenna aimed at Earth, remote controllable cameras, and some other interesting features. If they can solve the basic problem of putting a package that size on the lunar surface, it will make moonbounce operations much easier and cheaper. Then again, a satellite about that size is still waiting for a ride on an Ariane-5 out of Kourou and it's only going to a sun-synchronous orbit .. we shall see how it works out .. " -
Solar Eclipse, As Seen From Mir
David Schick writes "This cool picture was the Astronomy Picture of the Day from the Goddard Space Flight Center on August 30. Apparently, someone on Mir had a chance to take a snapshot of the solar eclipse over Europe. Kudos to Brian B. Riley on the AMSAT-BB mailing list for finding this cool nugget. " Check out the image archive while you're there. Several little files that meet Rob's First Rule of Art [?] .