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Huge Amateur Radio CubeSat Launch Set for June 28
NEWINGTON, CT, Jun 8, 2006--In what will be the largest deployment ever of Amateur Radio satellites, 13 Amateur Radio "CubeSats" are
set for launch June 28. If all goes according to plan, a Dnepr-1LV rocket will carry the CubeSats
into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A fourteenth satellite in
the package will not carry an Amateur Radio payload.
The CubeSat project is a collaboration between California
Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and Stanford University's Space
Systems Development Laboratory. All of the CubeSats set to launch this month
were designed and built by students at various universities in the US and elsewhere in the world.
Cornell University, Cal Poly, and the University of Arizona each will send two CubeSats into space. Other US schools participating in
the mass CubeSat launch are the University of Illinois, the University of Kansas, Montana State University and the University of Hawaii. In addition,
schools in Norway, S Korea and Japan have built CubeSats for this month's
launch.
One of the CubeSats, known as SEEDS, was built by students
at the Nihon University in Japan. It contains a CW beacon, Digi-Talker and other
experiments. The CW beacon will be on 437.485 MHz and use the call sign JQ1YGU.
The Digi-Talker experiment will be activated later. All 13 CubeSats will
identify using Amateur Radio call signs.
According to AMSAT-NA, the satellites will be put into a
500-by-566 km (310 by 351 miles) orbit with a 97-degree inclination. Each tiny satellite
is a 10 cm (4 inch) cube weighing just 1 kg (2.2 lbs) into which the battery,
transmitter and various experiments are packed.
Twelve of the satellites have downlinks in the Amateur
Radio satellite allocation between 435 and 438 MHz, and one will operate on
145.980 MHz, so there will be lots of signals to listen out for after launch. None
of the spacecraft will carry a transponder. Transmitter power outputs range
from 10 mW to 2 W.
Handling the complex job of frequency coordination was
International Amateur Radio Union (IARU)
Amateur Satellite Advisor Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV, and a panel of
experts who assist in frequency coordination and advise satellite builders.
Ralph Wallio, W0RPK, maintains a Web page with up-to-date CubeSat status
(scroll down).--AMSAT News Service
Page last modified: 02:23 PM, 08 Jun 2006 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2006, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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