ARLA/CLUSTER: Projecto para orbitar a Lua com um CubeSat da AMSAT-UK

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

UK radio ham’s Lunar CubeSat to go ahead

Radio amateur Michael Johnson M0MJJ gave a presentation on his Pocket
Spacecraft: Mission to the Moon project to the AMSAT-UK International
Space Colloquium held in July at Guildford

He aimed to raise funding for the project by using the Kickstarter
crowd-funding website.

The 60-day fund raising period ended on August 26, 2013 and it fell
short of target, raising pledges for £69,079 ($107,735) out of the
£290,000 ($452,284) goal. However, it appears, thanks to donations
from other sources, that the Pocket Spacecraft: Mission to the Moon is
still going ahead.

Update #6 on the Kickstarter page says:

“More than 350 private individuals, universities and companies have
backed the project via Kickstarter so far, but what we weren’t
expecting are the amazing direct offers of financial support and
support in kind that are too big or unable to be pledged via
Kickstarter. Thanks to this support from private individuals,
companies, government bodies, non-profits and others, we’re excited to
be able to confirm that Pocket Spacecraft: Mission to the Moon will go
ahead!”

The plan is that a 3U CubeSat will carry Pocket Spacecraft known as
‘Scouts’ to the Moon. A ‘Scout’ is a disk with flexible electronics,
smaller than a CD, containing a transceiver, antenna and solar cells.
The CubeSat should first release a batch of the wafer thin Scout
satellites into Earth orbit and then deploy another batch of the Scout
satellites into Lunar orbit.

It is understood the mission plans to use the 435 MHz and 2400 MHz bands.

The Kickstarter page says “If you are, or would like to be, a radio
amateur, we’ll show you how to communicate directly with your
spacecraft in space when it is nearby using inexpensive UHF and S-band
equipment. Communication at (cis-)lunar distances is more expensive
(typically requiring 5-24m+ steerable dishes), but available to some
clubs and enthusiasts.”

Pocket Spacecraft is believed to be the first UK satellite project to
have used Kickstarter. Several USA satellite projects have already
successfully raised money on Kickstarter:

Radio ham Zac Manchester KD2BHC used Kickstarter to raise $74,586 in
donations to fund the development and deployment of 200 amateur radio
KickSat sprite satellites expected to take place later this year.

Radio amateurs Jeroen Cappaert KK6BLQ, Joel Spark KK6ANB and Jonathan
Oxer VK3FADO are on the team of the ham radio satellite project
ArduSat. They managed to raise donations of $106,330 in just 30 days.

SkyCube which will transmit on 915 MHz in the 902-928 MHz amateur
radio band raised $116,890.

Kickstarter is not just about raising large sums of money, for example
Sandy Antunes used Kickstarter to raise $2,780 to buy a ham radio
transceiver and antennas to create an amateur radio satellite ground
station Calliope.

Read Pocket Spacecraft Update #6 at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1677943140/send-your-own-pocket-spacecraft-on-a-mission-to-th/posts/576993

Kickstarter page
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1677943140/send-your-own-pocket-spacecraft-on-a-mission-to-th/

Daily Mail article
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2352652/Now-send-personalised-spacecraft-moon-just-99–monitor-it-travels-space.html