15 Canadian CubeSats to launch from 2021

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15 Canadian CubeSats to launch from 2021

The Canadian Space Agency has been providing support and guidance to 15 teams of university and college students across Canada who are building satellites. These satellites are in the “CubeSat” format, based on a standardized architecture of 10-centimetre cubes. All 15 proposed satellites will be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS), possibly starting in 2021.

RAC is involved in explaining how, and under what conditions, Amateur Radio can be used for communications with these spacecraft, and a requirement of the frequency coordination process with the International Amateur Radio Union is an endorsement from RAC.

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AO-73 Now in Full-Time Transponder Mode

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AMSAT reports that, after some 8 months in continuous sunlight, AO-73 (FUNcube-1) began to encounter some eclipses during each orbit. Telemetry showed that AO-73 continued to function, although maintaining a sufficient battery charge was a concern. After 3 weeks of increasing eclipse periods, however, AMSAT reported that the lithium-ion battery appears to be okay, and the bus voltage has not yet dropped below 8.1 V. The operating mode has been shifted from high-power telemetry educational mode to continuous amateur mode with the transponder on. Telemetry continues to be available but at low power.

HuskySat-1 (HO-107) Transponder is Open

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The transponder on HuskySat-1, now designated as HuskySat-OSCAR 107 (HO-107), has been activated and is open for use and testing.

“It’s fairly sensitive, and 5 – 10 W is plenty most of the time. There are some fades due to satellite orientation, and some passes are definitely better than others. Strong signals may impact the beacon strength.”
— AMSAT Vice President – Operations Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA

HuskySat-1 is the first CubeSat from the Husky Satellite Lab at the University of Washington and the first mission with AMSAT’s linear transponder module (LTM-1), a V/u transponder and integrated telemetry beacon and command receiver. University researchers recently completed their Part 5 (Experimental) operations and have opened up the amateur radio transponder, which is available for use in educational CubeSat missions that are willing to enable the transponder for worldwide use.

The HuskySat-1 V/u transponder is inverting, with an uplink passband of 145.910 – 145.940 MHz, and a downlink passband of 435.810 – 435.840 MHz. The 1200-baud BPSK telemetry beacon is at 435.800 MHz.