Här kommer lite information och länkar angående de senaste amatörradiosatelliterna som skickades ut från rymdfärjan i samband med STS-116:
ANDE, RAFT and NMARS were deployed from the Space Shuttle on 21 December 2006.
RAFT and NMARS have a very high spin rate. NMARS is spinning at at least 60 RPM and RAFT at maybe half that. This will make getting a complete 1 second packet difficult due to fading on linear antennas.
The Naval Research Laboratory science mission of ANDE is to measure the density of the upper atmosphere by precise tracking of the orbit decay by the Maui Laser Ranging Tracking Station. The Comm system provides important telemetry on the attitude and temperature of the spacecraft. RAFT carries a
216.98 MHz receiver/transmitter to demonstrate self-location techniques when it flies through the Space Surveillance Network radar fence across the southern USA. When this experiment is activated, users will hear a 1 second ping when it flies through the fence.
ANDE and RAFT also carry packet radio communications systems and join with other US Naval Academy APRS digipeating satellites such as PCSAT-1 and PCSAT2. ANDE and RAFT will respond to the path alias of APRSAT and ARISS.
This is so that users do not have to reconfigure their path between satellites or between their ISS groundstation. The following frequencies are used by these two spacecraft:
* ANDE Side A: 145.825 Digipeater up/downlink 1200 baud packet
* ANDE Side B: 145.825 downlink (backup to side A only)
* RAFT System: 145.825 Digipeater up/downlink 1200 baud packet
* RAFT PSK-31: 28.120 HF PSK-31 uplink -downlink on 145.825
Much more information about these satellites is available on the ANDE, RAFT, NMARS, & FCAL Operations web site.
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/ande-raft-ops.html
[ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR, for the above information]
The GeneSat-1 mission is proceeding very well. Biology data shows definite growth. Payload temperature control is doing a good job of holding the median payload temperature close to 34 deg C (the latest data shows median payload temp of 33.42). The 2.4 GHz communications link is functional and supporting the required level of procedural execution by the ops team. So far nearly all commanding has been done in the very early morning hours, over time the Ops Team will also be interested in assessing how time-varying (and most likely directional) 2.4 GHz noise affects the command link (e.g. how 2.4 GHz wireless noise increases during normal working hours)
The 70cm beacon downlink is excellent although the frequency has shifted down to about 437.0645 MHz. So far over 7100 beacon packets have been submitted by Amateurs world-wide.
The GeneSat team is also happy to report the winner of the GeneSat First Contact Prize for the amateur radio community: Ralph Wallio, WØRPK. Ralph successfully decoded 5 beacon packets at approximately 13:44:28 UTC on 16 December 2006, which was about 85 minutes after GeneSat deployed from the PPOD. Ralph is located in Iowa.
Additional information about the GeneSat-1’s on-going mission is availble at http://www.genesat1.org/
[ANS thanks GeneSat1 Operations for the above information]