SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-030.01
ARISSat-1 Arrives at the International Space Station
AMSAT News Service Bulletin 030.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
January 30, 2011
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-030.01
On January 28 at 0132 UTC,a Soyuz rocket lifted off from Kazakhstan carrying the Russian Progress M-09M cargo vehicle to orbit headed for the International Space Station (ISS).
While the primary cargo of the Progress vehicle is fuel, oxygen, food and other supplies, the Progress also contains AMSAT's ARISSat-1 Amateur Radio satellite.
Progress docked with the space station just two days after launch, on January 30 at 0239 UTC.
Currently ARISSat-1 is planned to be manually deployed from the ISS by Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka during a spacewalk on February 16. ARISSat-1/RadioSkaf V will have simultaneous 2m FM, CW, BPSK and transponder transmissions. These multiple transmissions are created by a new software defined transponder (SDX) board. Features provided by the SDX include:
* The FM transmissions with cycle between a voice ID, select telemetry values, 24 international greeting messages in 15 languages and live SSTVimages.
* The CW transmissions will be callsign ID, select telemetry, and callsigns of people actively involved with the ARISS program.
* The BPSK transmissions will feature a new 1kBPSK protocol developed by Phil Karn, KA9Q to be readable in low signal level conditions. The BPSK data will alternate betwen telemetry and Kursk experiment data. Free ground station soundcard demodulator and display software will be available before deployment for multiple platforms.
* There also is a 16kHz wide amateur radio U/V transponder between the BPSK
and FM signals.
* The Kursk experiment will be sampling the amount of vacuum each day for 90 minutes and sending down data to map the vacuum change as the satellite slowly spirals into the atmosphere.
[ANS thanks Gould, WA4SXM, for the above information]
RSC Energia has information and photographs about the satellite on their news site.
http://www.energia.ru/en/news/news-2010/news_12-31.html
Here is the frequency plan for the ARISSat-1 satellite.
