Category Archives: Exocube

EXOCube and SRI 150 foot Dish

Posted on by

EXOCube gets help from SRI and there 150 foot dish.

Today I received the following update after I had informed how things where going with the Calpoly EXOCube Cubesat launched with the Elana X mission.

sri-150foot-dishSRI has been very generous and has allowed us to use their 150 foot dish for the past few days. The team went to SRI Sunday and Monday to use the dish. We got down a significant amount of telemetry data and health information. The space craft is doing alright, except for low transmit power, so we are trying to move ahead with the mission even with a limited link to the satellite. Unfortunately the SRI dish is not automated and must be staffed by SRI operators. We have to coordinate every pass remotely from Cal Poly. The dish is a short term solution that allows us to talk to the satellite when we really need to for time critical parts of the mission, but we are going to need a long term solution. We are upgrading our ground stations to have a dedicated transmit and dedicated receive station. We’re confident we can talk to the satellite, the listening part is where we are grasping for every last dB. We will make an update to our website in the next couple of days about the current status of the mission. We just have to be careful not to jump to conclusions so we are taking our time with analyzing the data we get.

Thank you again for your interest in our mission and Exocube’s health!
Jeff Weaver (KJ6YVI)

Elana-X Cubesats Active

Posted on by

All Elana-X Cubesats are received, only EXOCube is still not 100% sure because data is seen in the SDR spectrum but the signals are very weak.

I have made two IQ recordings, one from 31-01-2015 just after GRIFEX enabled its beacon and early morning 01-02-2015. The first one is the pass-band where Firebird-2 FU3 and GRIFEX are in and the second file is Firebird-2 FU4 and EXOCube.

FB-2 FU4 and EXOCube 01-02-2015 07:48 UTC

Firebird-II FU4 Telemetry 01-02-2015 07:48 UTC

1:Fm K7MSU To K7MSU
   1 > C0 00 96 6E 9A A6 AA 40 60 96 6E 9A A6 AA 40 E1 03 F0 DB DC 
  21 > 55 04 55 01 00 06 00 00 54 9F 03 41 00 02 00 00 2D 2C 00 01 
  41 > DE A8 03 3A 00 00 01 DE 15 00 00 2D 1E 03 39 03 39 00 00 00 
  61 > 00 00 00 00 03 01 D0 02 7F 02 87 02 15 02 0F 00 07 00 08 01 
  81 > 8D 01 8F 03 AC 02 6B 02 65 02 6E 02 69 01 C8 01 D4 02 69 00 
 101 > F9 00 0D 00 00 00 00 00 3E 00 2E 00 05 00 19 00 19 00 18 00 
 121 > 17 00 16 00 15 00 B6 00 17 1E A0 0E E8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
 141 > 00 00 8C 00 1C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
 161 > 00 03 1B 13 41 02 6D 02 67 02 6A 02 6C 02 64 02 65 7F D5 7F 
 181 > FA 80 26 80 26 80 1E 7F ED BB 94 DB DC C0

Firebird-II FU3 Telemetry 31-01-2015 17:13 UTC

from K7MSU to K7MSU
000 > C0 00 96 6E 9A A6 AA 40 60 96 6E 9A A6 AA 40 E1 03 F0 DB DC 
020 > AA 04 AA 01 00 0E 00 00 13 8C 0E 0B 05 00 0A 03 34 00 20 7B 
040 > 0A 00 83 00 00 72 6B 01 01 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 4E 02 37 02 
060 > 29 00 00 00 00 01 7A 00 6C 00 0F 00 00 00 02 AA 00 00 00 00 
080 > 00 00 00 00 03 52 00 01 00 00 00 01 06 06 00 00 10 9F 00 00 
100 > 00 06 2E 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 
120 > 1A 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
140 > 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
160 > 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 EF 12 DB DC C0

GRIFEX Telemetry 31-01-2015 17:49 UTC

from CQ to KD8SPS
   1 > C0 00 96 88 70 A6 A0 A6 60 86 A2 40 40 40 40 E1 03 F0 AB CD 
  21 > 00 00 00 42 03 F5 00 B4 75 16 10 00 00 00 00 1A 00 10 00 06 
  41 > 00 01 00 23 00 37 11 EE 7B C9 71 01 CA CB 00 00 7E 2A 00 00 
  61 > 12 00 1B 00 71 00 00 00 00 28 08 00 00 29 06 21 06 F9 0C 5D 
  81 > 00 27 00 F1 0C B8 0E 0C 00 A5 0E E3 05 47 06 B2 0E 0E 00 63 
 101 > 0D 1C 00 17 00 F9 0C 8B 00 54 00 14 06 63 0D 80 00 F6 0C AF 
 121 > 00 DB DD 00 0E 00 2F 02 0D 00 00 06 01 06 66 0A C4 00 03 0F 
 141 > 41 00 FB 05 FF 05 A8 00 02 00 2A 02 07 00 0D 06 0D 06 97 0A 
 161 > F3 00 2D 0F 53 00 05 06 09 06 01 FC 4E 06 4B 06 4F 06 00 DB 
 181 > DC 1E 00 5A 00 53 FF 65 00 C2 FF 12 00 99 00 AE FF 45 00 E8 
 201 > 00 F6 FF DB DD 00 4A 0B 40 0B 39 0A 27 0A 36 0A 41 0A BE 0A 
 221 > C4 0A 36 06 BE 09 03 00 00 00 88 33 88 33 4C 00 00 00 00 00 
 241 > 00 00 00 E3 03 00 00 01 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
 261 > 24 94 B0 15 1C 40 C0

Based on the launch sequence and the new TLE made available via Space-track I will be using the following Kepler data for the upcoming passes.

FIREBIRD-2-FU3
1 40377U 15003B   15032.23998870 -.00000111  00000-0  00000+0 0    47
2 40377 099.1229 040.8394 0160422 338.5296 020.9352 15.04145247    97
FIREBIRD-2-FU4
1 40378U 15003C   15032.23997153 -.00000113  00000-0  00000+0 0    43
2 40378 099.1283 040.8489 0167282 337.6984 021.7000 15.04199923    97
GRIFEX
1 40379U 15003D   15032.24001357 -.00000113  00000-0  00000+0 0    47
2 40379 099.1258 040.8456 0166294 338.7028 020.7326 15.04106125    99
EXOCUBE
1 40380U 15003E   15032.17351219 -.00000113  00000-0  00000+0 0    46
2 40380 099.1346 040.7708 0166270 338.5236 020.9052 15.04039583    81

EXOCube Beacon 3OXWith the help of the image from the IQ analysis on the top of this message, Logan Sisca found the following beacon message. Well done.

Delta-2 launched

Posted on by

The Delta-2 with on board four cubsats: FIREBIRD II-A & B, GRIFEX, ExoCube is finally launched from SLC-2W Vandenberg.

Delta-2 Launch

Grifex labGRIFEX public ground station software can be downloaded at: mxl-ops.engin.umich.edu
MXL Blog with the latest updates can be found at: Michigan Exploration Laboratory, GRIFEX operation

GRIFEX, the GEO-CAPE ROIC In-Flight Performance Experiment, is a 3-Unit CubeSat that hosts an engineering experiment setting out to demonstrate an all-digital in-pixel high frame rate Read-Out Integrated Circuit developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Firebird-2 information: SSEL
EXOCube information: PolySat

elena_x_frequencies

Delta-2 SMAP launch sequence

Posted on by

Delta-2 SMAP LaunchNew Delta-2 Cubsat ppod launch sequence.

Based on todays schedule and the fact the launch is delayed for 24 hours, then the below schedule should be the correct sequence for tomorrow 01/30/15 14:20:42 UTC. Latest news on the SMAP launch: Spaceflight101.

Below the Cubsat deploy and activation details for Exocube (CP10), Firebird-2 and Grifex.

Event Elapsed (min) Time (UTC)
Launch 0 1/31/15 14:20:42
Firebird-2 deploy 105 1/31/15 16:05:49
Grifex deploy 107 1/31/15 16:07:29
Exocube (CP10) deploy 108 1/31/15 16:09:09
Firebird-2 Beacon start 165 1/31/15 17:05:49
Grifex Beacon start 172 1/31/15 17:12:59
Exocube (CP10) Beacon start 308 1/31/15 19:29:09

Source: Amsat-BB