AMSAT-UK
Announces New Amateur Satellite Project
 AMSAT-UK Chairman Martin Sweeting, G3YJO. |
NEWINGTON,
CT, Aug 3, 2004--If you geared up for the apparently now-defunct AMSAT Phase 3B
(AO-40) satellite, don't get rid of that U/S-band equipment just yet. AMSAT-UK
Chairman Martin Sweeting, G3YJO, has announced that an Amateur Radio
transponder will be part of the European
Space Agency's (ESA) Student Space Exploration and Technology
Initiative (SSETI) "Express" satellite. Onboard will be a 2.4 GHz transmitter
and a 437 MHz receiver. The pair will be turned into an amateur FM voice
transponder after the transmitter serves initial telemetry duty.
"These
frequencies will enable the many amateurs who already have AMSAT OSCAR 40
equipment to use it in an exciting new way," Sweeting said. Speaking during the
2004 AMSAT-UK Colloquium July 30-August 1 at the University of Surrey in
Guildford, England, Sweeting said AMSAT-UK has arranged with the ESA to provide--at
very short notice--an S band transmitter for the SSETI Express. The 2.4 GHZ transmitter
will become the downlink of the single-channel FM U/S transponder. Holger
Eckart, DF2FQ, will provide the UHF receiver.
 A graphic layout of the SSETI "Express" cubesat. |
The AMSAT-UK
team of Sam Jewell, G4DDK, David Bowman, G0MRF, and Jason Flynn, G7OLD, is developing
the 2.4 GHz downlink exciter, switching-mode power supply and control
interfaces with assistance from Graham Shirville, G3VZV. Charles Suckling,
G3WDG, has completed the 3 W 2.4 GHz power amplifier--identical to the one
flying in the recently launched AO-51 "Echo" spacecraft. The S band antennas consist
of three flat-plate patches, engineered and produced by Wroclaw University of
Technology in Poland.
 The Express satellite is scheduled to launch in April 2005
from Plestek, Russia, a site that's been used primarily for military launches.
|
The SSETI
Express is believed to be the first-ever pan-European student satellite with more
than 100 students and their teachers at several European universities working
on the project. Onboard experiments include attitude control, a camera and a
cold gas propulsion unit. The ESA Education Office is managing and coordinating
the project. The 2.4GHz downlink transmitter will send satellite telemetry and
data at 38.4 kb/s before being switched over to voice transponder operation once
onboard experiments have been completed.
Spacecraft
integration is due to start this month at the ESTEC
laboratories in the Netherlands. Plans call for launching the 80 kg
spacecraft into a 680 km sun-synchronous orbit next April from Plestek, Russia.--AMSAT-UK
Page last modified: 03:28 PM, 03 Aug 2004 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2004, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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