ARISSat-1/KEDR SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED
This is the prototype test flight of a
proposed series of educational satellites being developed in a partnership with
the Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT), the NASA Office of Education ISS
National Lab Project, the Amateur Radio on ISS (ARISS) working group and
RSC-Energia.
The satellite is also called “KEDR”, which means “Cedar” in Russian. This was
the call sign used by Youry Gagarine during his historic space flight
in 1961. Kedr commemorates the 50th
anniversary of the first man in space.
ARISSat-1 was designed, developed and
tested by AMSAT-NA and ARISS volunteers. The primary mission for the
satellite is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)
education around the world. The satellite also carries an experiment developed
by the University of Kursk, Russia for the study of
the atmospheric pressure in the space layer close to Earth.
Students are expected to be able to
easily receive the 2m FM transmissions and use the information in classroom
exercises. There are 24 greeting in 15 languages, most with a Secret Word at
the end. Students or classes can email their Secret Word reception and receive
a certificate.
Certificates will also be issued for
SSTV image reception, voice telemetry reception, CW reception, full SSB
telemetry packet reception and
Free software is available for the PC and Mac that will take audio from a 2m SSB receiver connected to a computer sound card and display the BPSK-1000 telemetry signal.
Students and interested observers will be able to get the experiment data and plot it as well as watch the temperature and battery voltage changes as the satellite gets closer to the earth.
A 16 kHz wide 70cm/2m (U/V) SSB/CW transponder is aboard, which can be used by Amateur Radio operators to operate through. An issue with the UHF receiving antenna is limiting the use of this transponder, but early reports are encouraging.
The 40 kHz wide signal containing FM, CW, BPSK and transponder is all being transmitted simultaneously using new SDX (Software Defined Transponder) technology.
Details are available on the following webpages :
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ARISSat/ARISSat.php
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/ARISSat/ARISSatHowTo.php
ARISSat-1/Kedr is expected to operate for nearly 6 month before de-orbiting.
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Gaston Bertels – ON4WF
ARISS Chairman