Category Archives: Amateur/Student Satellite

Amateur/Student Satellite, Space Systems

STRaND-1 Cubesat operational and now tracked by amateur radio operators

The University of Surrey’s STRaND-1 Cubesat (built with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd) is controlled by a SmartPhone is now being tracked by student and amateur satellite radio operators after its successful launch on Feb.25th:

Smartphone satellite “STRaND-1” operational in orbit
STRaND-1, the nanosatellite carrying a smartphone, has been declared operational in orbit by the mission team from the University of Surrey’s Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL).
The satellite successfully separated from the Indian PSLV launcher in low Earth orbit after its launch on 25th February, and first contact with STRaND-1 was made on its second pass over the Guildford ground station.  STRaND-1 is being commissioned and operated from the Surrey Space Centre’s ground station at the University of Surrey.  Initial checks have confirmed that critical systems are all functioning as expected.
Professor Craig Underwood, Deputy Director of the Surrey Space Centre said: “STRaND-1 has been an excellent project linking academia with industry and taking space engineering research through to a real mission.  It’s another major space success for the UK, delivered by Surrey in an amazingly short time and we are looking forward to receiving the first data from the on-board smartphone soon.”
 “The STRaND-1 team have worked incredibly hard over the past week to achieve this result”, said Doug Liddle, SSTL’s Head of Science.  “The first week of commissioning a satellite is always complex but we have had fantastic support from the AMSAT community around the world, and are now commanding STRaND-1 in orbit.  Setting up the ground station and establishing communications with the spacecraft has been a valuable part of the learning curve – the team feel and look like they’ve run several marathons in the last 10 days!”
The STRaND-1 mission team will continue commissioning of the satellite’s systems in orbit during the next few weeks and, after this phase has been successfully completed, phase two of the mission will see the testing of the smartphone’s experimental Apps and subsequently a number of in-orbit operations being switched over to the smartphone.
STRaND-1 is an innovative 3U CubeSat weighing 3.5kg and is the world’s first “phonesat” to go into orbit, as well as the first UK CubeSat to be launched.  It was developed by a team from the University of Surrey’s Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) and is a research, training, and demonstration mission designed to test commercial off-the-shelf technologies in space.  It follows on from the UK’s first nanosatellite mission, SNAP-1, also built by SSC and SSTL, 13 years ago.
Amateur radio operators can track STRaND-1 from across the world.  Details of the frequency are available at www.amsat-uk.org/
You can follow STRaND at https://twitter.com/SurreyNanosats and for more information visit http://www.sstl.co.uk/STRAND-nanosatellite
About Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey
The Surrey Space Centre (SSC), a Research Centre of the Faculty of Electronics and Physical Sciences (FEPS) at the University of Surrey, is a world leading Centre of Excellence in Space Engineering, whose aim is to underpin the technical development of the space industry through its advanced research programmes. SSC, comprising over 90 researchers and faculty specialising in small satellite techniques, develops new innovative technologies which are exploited by the space industry. It provides well-focused space engineering education, postgraduate and industrial short courses, training the next generation space scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and business leaders
Twitter: @SpaceAtSurrey
About SSTL
Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) is the world’s leading small satellite company, delivering operational space missions for a range of applications including Earth observation, science and communications. The Company designs, manufactures and operates high performance satellites and ground systems for a fraction of the price normally associated with space missions, with over 500 staff working on turnkey satellite platforms, space-proven satellite subsystems and optical instruments.
Since 1981 SSTL has built and launched 41 satellites – as well as providing training and development programmes, consultancy services, and mission studies for ESA, NASA , international governments and commercial customers, with its innovative approach that is changing the economics of space.
In 2008 the Company set up a US subsidiary, Surrey Satellite Technology US LLC  (SST-US) with facilities in Denver, Colorado to address the United States market and its customers for the provision of small satellite solutions, applications and services. www.sst-us.com
Headquartered in Guildford, UK, SSTL is owned by Astrium BV. www.sstl.co.uk
Amateur/Student Satellite, Education

NASA selects another group of Cubesat projects for rides to space

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NASA will provide piggyback rides to space for two dozen Cubesats, including many student built spacecraft, in the next three years:

NASA Announces Fourth Round of CubeSat Space Mission Candidates

WASHINGTON — NASA has selected 24 small satellites to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The proposed CubeSats come from universities across the country, a Florida high school, several non-profit organizations and NASA field centers.

CubeSats belong to a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites measure about 4 inches on each side, have a volume of about 1 quart, and weigh less than 3 pounds.

The selections are from the fourth round of the CubeSat Launch Initiative. After launch, the satellites will conduct technology demonstrations, educational research or science missions. The selected CubeSats will be eligible for flight after final negotiations and an opportunity for flight becomes available.

The following organizations submitted winning satellite proposals:

— The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.
— The Discovery Museum and Planetarium, Bridgeport, Conn.
— Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, Ariz.
— Morehead State University, Morehead, Ky., in partnership with the University of California at Berkeley
— Montana State University, Bozeman (2 CubeSats) in partnership with The University of New Hampshire, Durham
— Merritt Island High School, Florida, in partnership with California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
— NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
— NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. (3 CubeSats)
— NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., in partnership with the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (3 CubeSats)
— NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida
— Pennsylvania State University, in partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey, Calif., and the Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.
— Saint Louis University, St. Louis
— Tyvak Nano-Satellites Systems, Irvine, Calif., in partnership with the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
— University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
— University of Colorado, Boulder
— University of Florida, Gainesville, in partnership with Stanford University
— University of Maryland, Baltimore County
— University of Texas, Austin
— Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., in partnership with the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, Silver Spring, Md.

In the three previous rounds of the CubeSat initiative, NASA has selected 63 missions for flight. The agency’s Launch Services Program Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELaNa) Program has launched 12 CubeSat missions. This year, 22 CubeSat missions are scheduled for flight.

For additional information on NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative program, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/nXOuPI

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.go

Amateur/Student Satellite, Space Radio

AMSAT & ISS amateur radio news

Go to AMSAT News for the latest headlines about developments in amateur and student satellites and for updates about amateur radio on the ISS.

ANS 062 Weekly AMSAT Bulletin – March 2, 2013:
* Vanderbilt-AMSAT RadFxSat Cubesat Selected for NASA ELaNa Program
* AMSAT Shows New President’s Club Pin
* 5th European CubeSat Symposium, 3-5 June 2013, Brussels – Belgium
* American satellite starts transmitting after being abandoned in 1967
* STRaND-1 Information and Telemetry
* ARISS NEWS
* AMSAT-DC Workshop on Portable Satellite Ground Stations
* AMSAT Forum at ACADIANA ARA Hamfest – Free Admission Coupons for Youth
* Korean OSSI-1 Ham Radio CubeSat Frequency Coordinated
* ARRL Offers Two Sessions of their Teachers Institute

Amateur/Student Satellite, Space participation

Scream in Space via an orbiting smartphone

India today successfully launched seven satellites on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island. One of the payloads is the STRaND-1 Cubesat built by Surrey Satellite and operated by a “Google Nexus One smartphone with an Android operating system”: World’s first “phonesat”, STRaND-1, successfully launched into orbit – Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL).

The phone provides

cameras, radio links, accelerometers and high performance computer processors – almost everything except solar panels and propulsion.  During the first phase of the mission, STRaND-1 will use a number a number of experimental Apps to collect data while a new high-speed linux-based cubesat computer developed by SSC takes care of the satellite.  During phase two, the STRaND team hope to switch the satellite’s in-orbit operations to the smartphone, thereby testing the capabilities of a number of standard smartphone components for a space environment.

SSTL carried out a public contest for apps to be run on the phone and the winners included apps for magnetic field measurements, satellite telemetry display, and earth imaging,

 

And the fourth app is Scream in Space!

Testing the theory ‘in space no-one can hear you scream, made popular in the 1979 film ‘Alien’, the app will allow the public to upload videos of themselves screaming in a creative way to an allocated website.  The most popular videos will be played on the phone while in orbit and the scream recorded using the smartphone’s microphone.

Here is a gallery of the video screams submitted: Screams | Scream in Space!

Amateur/Student Satellite, Astronomy, Space Systems

Canadian asteroid finder to be launched on Monday

On Monday at 1226 GMT (7:26 a.m. EST), or 5:56 p.m. local time, India will launch six satellites on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The PSLV will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island, which is India’s main launch site.

Included in the batch of satellites is the Canadian NEOSSat spacecraft, which has a small telescope that will be used to find Atira class asteroids, which orbit the sun entirely within the earth’s orbit: Asteroid Hunter: An Interview with NEOSSat Scientist Alan Hildebrand – Space.com.

NEOSSat will also scan for satellites and debris circling the earth.

NEOSSat was built by MSCI (Microsat  Systems Canada, Inc), which previously built the MOST (The Microviability and Oscillation of Stars) microsatellite, a low cost spacecraft that is still in operation several years past its originally planned lifespan.

Here are two Canadian Space Agency videos about NEOSSat: