ARLA/CLUSTER: Satélite de amador D-STAR a ser lançado de Kourou na Guiana Francesa a 22 de Abril

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

D-STAR satellite to launch from Kourou

The ESA Education Office Fly Your Satellite! (FYS) programme is
designed to train the next generation of aerospace professionals.

Three chosen student teams have each developed 1U CubeSats carrying
amateur radio payloads which are expected to launch on April 22, 2016
into a 453 by 644 km 98.2 degree inclination orbit

The satellites designed and built by the student teams, arrived in
South America on Friday, March 25. Upon arrival, they were given a
security escort from the airport to the Guiana Space Centre, near
Kourou.
The student teams arrived on March 28.

The satellites themselves are CubeSats. This class of small satellites
have helped revolutionise access to space. Made of standard
components, as the name suggests they come in modular dimensions of
just 10x10x10cm in size.

On March 30 the students removed the so-called Remove Before Flight
pins and successfully verified that the CubeSats were ready for
launch. Afterwards, the lateral access ports of the P-POD were put
back in place.  The next time the students will have contact with
their respective CubeSats will be through the communication link after
the satellites are deployed into orbit.

The next activities consist in completing the application of a special
thermal-optical tape on the outside of the P-POD, which will ensure
the unpowered CubeSats are shielded from extreme thermal radiation
during the launch phase. Finally, the planning for the next weeks will
consist in integrating the P-POD with the rest of the launcher.

OUFTI-1 from the University of Liege, Belgium, will be the first
satellite to carry an amateur radio D-STAR transponder. The article
'D-STAR digital amateur communications in space with OUFTI-1 CubeSat'
by Jonathan Pisane ON7JPD, Amandine Denis ON4EYA and Jacques Verly
ON9CWD can be seen in the June 2013 edition 202 of the AMSAT-UK
publication OSCAR News. http://tinyurl.com/June-2013-OSCAR-News

The CubeSat e-st  r-II from the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, will
demonstrate an attitude control system using measurements of the
Earth’s magnetic field; and AAUSAT4 from the University of Aalborg,
Denmark, will operate an automated ocean vessel identification system.

ESA Press Release
http://www.esa.int/Education/CubeSats_-_Fly_Your_Satellite/
Launch_campaign_started_CubeSats_arrived_at_Kourou_spaceport

IARU coordinated frequencies http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/
OUFTI-1 - 145.950 MHz FSK AX25 and D-STAR (uplink 435.045 MHz) - CW
beacon 145.980 MHz
e-st  r-II - 437.485 MHz CW and 1k2 AFSK
AAUSAT-4 - 437.425 MHz