Category Archives: Satellite

Satellite Category

Solar Eclipse 2015

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Solar Eclipse and AO-73 on 20-03-2015 starts 07:41 UTC and ends at 11:50 UTC.

Eclipse-2015

Coming Friday there will be a solar eclipse and during this eclipse there are in my case 3 AO-73 (FUNcube-1) passes that go through this region. Therefore it is interesting to see how this phenomenon influences the satellite.

For my location (JO21) the following times are interesting (Times in CEST = UTC+1)

Solar Eclipse path 20-03-2015

First AO-73 pass in this periode starts 09:21 CEST
Second AO-73 pass in this periode starts 10:57 CEST (best opportunity)
Third AO-73 pass in this periode starts 12:33 CEST

When you look closely to the below image, taken from Oribitron you can see that Sun and Moon fall over each other.

AO-73-Eclipse

I will listen for the AO-73 beacon during these three passes and upload the data to the FUNcube Warehouse.

NASA | Shadow of the Moon. The Moon’s shadow will create a total solar eclipse. This video presents several visualizations of what this shadow would look like from space, and highlights the areas of the world in the path of the umbra and penumbra.

UWE-3 News

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UWE-3 News 12-03-2015:

Software update of all on-board micro-controllers.

In the beginning of February 2015 we uploaded new software images for all UWE-3 subsystems to the satellite, which comprise in total 3 images on 9 micro-controllers. This software was installed thereafter and is since then successfully operational on UWE-3. The software update targeted major improvements for the attitude control of the satellite, which was the focus of tests right after the update.

UWE-3_News-Attitude-Determination-and-Control

The satellite now is back to a preliminary un-operated state (switching between the on-board computers every 4 days) while we process the data and decide on future operation plans. Thanks a lot for your great support! Especially we want to thank: CX8AF, DK3WN, EU1XX, G7GQW, IW0HLG, JA0CAW, JA1GDE, JA5BLZ, JA6PL, JE1CVL, JE9PEL, JO1PTD, LU4EOU, ON4HF, PE0SAT, R4UAB, Rainer Rothe, SP7THR, VK5HI.

Yours sincerely, UWE-3 Team

UWE-3 Mission Logo

GRIFEX Telemetry 15-02-2015

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GRIFEX Telemetry 15-02-2015 14:46 – 18:04 UTC. It seems that the rotation over the Y axis is stabilizing.

grifex_grifex_pe0sat_15022015_1159

GRIFEX-axisIf you wonder how to project the axises on the satellite, have a look at the image on the right. This gives you an idea what the data collected is possibly telling us.

EXOCube and SRI 150 foot Dish

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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)