AMSAT-UK is delighted to have been able to accept an opportunity to provide a FUNcube Lite payload, with a mode U/V FM transponder, for the exciting Jovian-1 satellite.

This 6U CubeSat is being designed and built by Space South Central which is the largest regional space cluster in the UK.

This is a partnership between industry and academia, designed to accelerate space business growth, grow the reputation

of the south central region of the UK and foster an environment of innovation.

A collaboration between the universities of Surrey, Portsmouth and Southampton, JUPITER – the Joint Universities Programme for In-Orbit Training, Education and Research – will equip participants with invaluable hands-on space industry experience and training for their future careers.

The FUNcube Lite payload from AMSAT-UK will collect and send telemetry from Jovian-1 sub-systems for educational outreach to schools and colleges, using the tried and tested FUNcube data format.

Telemetry will include data from the payload’s own radiation sensor, along with GPS information gathered from the satellite’s CAN bus.

These data can be used to map radiation throughout the orbit, identifying planetary radiation ‘hotspots’ such as the polar regions and the South Atlantic Anomaly. It will also give an accurate measure of how much radiation reaches the sensitive electronics within the satellite.

While Jovian-1 and its ground station at Surrey University will use commercial S and X band for primary communication,

FUNcube Lite will use frequencies in the amateur UHF and VHF spectrum.

When not sending telemetry, the payload can be configured as a mode U/V FM voice transponder for amateurs to use for international communications.

More information will be provided during the AMSAT-UK Colloquium taking place during the weekend October 12/13th https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/

Links:
Space South Central: https://www.spacesouthcentral.com/
Surrey University: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/
Portsmouth University: https://www.port.ac.uk/
Southampton University: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/

Dave Johnson, G4DPZ
Hon Sec AMSAT-UK
on behalf of the AMSAT-UK Committee & FUNcube Team

ANS is a weekly news service provided by AMSAT. Visit them at AMSAT.org

ANS is a weekly news service provided by AMSAT. Visit them at AMSAT.org

ANS is a weekly news service provided by AMSAT. Visit them at AMSAT.org

EO-88, with its 70cm to 2m linear transponder, having spent a trouble free 6 years and 5 months in space, finally re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned up on Tuesday, 18th July. Having originally been launched into a 500km orbit, EO-88 has reduced in altitude rapidly over the past year due to the increased level of solar activity.

Remarkably, some of the last frames of telemetry were captured as the 1U CubeSat passed over the South Western United States.
The final 90 seconds show a rapid rise in temperature across all the satellites sub systems. The last frame of data was captured by David WB0IZO in New Mexico at 18:18:54 UTC showing the antenna temperatures operating about 40 degrees above normal.

During the past 2 weeks, 86 stations have contributed EO-88 telemetry to the FUNcube Data Warehouse and this has given us the opportunity to study the behaviour of a functioning CubeSat as it makes its return from Space. Thank you all for your support.

Having provided the last frame of data, David WB0IZO, wins the telemetry section of the AMSAT-UK re-entry competition and will receive a framed certificate of achievement.

The prediction for the date and time of re-entry was very close with Paul N8HM predicting the 17th July and Larry N1MIW calculating the 21st. However, the winning entry was made by Thomas HB9SKA who correctly predicted the 18th July. Thomas also wins a framed certificate.

RIP EO-88. GOODBYE AND THANKS FOR THE FUN!

David G0MRF (AMSAT-UK)