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
DIY space, Space participation

Training for suborbital spaceflight – needed or not?

3 Comments

Kristian von Bengtson of Copenhagen Suborbitals is skeptical of the need for specialize training for people going on suborbital space flights: Why Training for a Suborbital Spaceflight is Just another Great Story at the Local Chesterfield Club – Wired Science/Wired.com.

I’ll note that there have usually been three reasons given for suborbital spaceflight training such as that provided at NASTAR Center:

  1. To insure that those with potential health issues, e.g. advanced age and cardiovascular problems, can do the flight safely
  2. To allow suborbital spaceflight ticket holders to practice the zero-g phase with parabolic flights so they can maximize their enjoyment during the five minutes at the apogee of their flight.
  3. To include training as part of the whole experience of the spaceflight, which is very expensive at this early stage.

These all seem perfectly reasonable to me and I expect training to remain a part of suborbital adventure spaceflights even if its true that most people would survive a suborbital space flight without it.

Multiple media, Solar Science

Prof. Jim Bell talks about exploring Mars, the Moon, asteroids and more with rovers and landers

Here is a video of a public presentation by Prof. Jim Bell of Arizona State Univ. on planetary and deep space exploration. Lots of great pictures.

In this talk Professor Bell will review some of the recent highlights from Mars surface missions (especially the continuing adventures of the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers), discuss the kinds of up-close contact science measurements that can be done from such robotic vehicles, and talk about how the lessons learned from these missions can influence future Mars, asteroid, and comet rovers and landers.

More at

 

 

Science and Technology

Sci-Tech: Electric tilt-rotor aircraft unveiled by AgustaWestland

AgustaWestland has designed, built and flown a prototype tilt-rotor vehicle that uses only electric power:

Exif_JPEG_PICTUREPhoto credits: AgustaWestland

Space Science, The Moon

LRO probes the Moon’s permanent shadows

This video describes the areas within some craters at the lunar south polar region that sunlight never reaches. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, however, uses a laser altimeter system to measure the topology of those dark places.

More info at

 

Everyone can participate in space