[amsat-bb] D-SAT Mission

[Scott]

It's great to hear that there will be opportunities for the rest of us to 
contribute later in the mission.

As for now, just like Europe & elsewhere there are a good number of amateurs 
in the U.S. collecting telemetry as their primary satellite activity every 
day.  Of course, effective range, equipment capabilities, and hours 
dedicated to the hobby vary but there is a LOT of data collecting potential 
out there... nearly world-wide.

So, the visibility window is essentially all the time.

While out-of-date and VERY roughly done, you might get a kick out of an 
effort that I made some time ago to document the coverage provided by 
amateur operators contributing telemetry to the DK3WN/PE0SAT database at 
that time:

http://www.qsl.net/k/k4kdr//files/Amateur-Space-Network.png

(Imagine how much more complete that coverage actually is if you add the 
stations I missed, or who have become active since I made that map!)

In the U.S., specifically, I see that there are very high D-SAT passes in 
the prime evening hours coming up for us over the next several days... the 
area of 10pm-11pm local time over the East Coast & 1 1/2 hours later over 
the Western U.S.  For people who work during the day and are more active 
with hobby activities in the evening, of course this is ideal.

So, if you have any needs or special activities that you have been holding 
to test other than when over Europe (or for longer duration than a single 
pass over your location), the area of 0230 UTC will find D-SAT high in the 
sky over the Eastern U.S. should that be of any interest to your team.

Finally, many of us have worked (and ARE working) directly with cubesat 
teams to transmit commands UP to satellites for various reasons that were 
useful to their projects.  I would encourage you to reach out to any of us 
that are located in positions favorable to your orbit if there is ever an 
opportunity to add value to your project.

Thanks for the info!

-Scott



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-----Original Message----- 
From: IU5CRE
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 2:47 PM
To: 'Scott' ; amsat-bb at amsat.org
Subject: R: [amsat-bb] D-SAT Mission

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the congrats.
Actually D-SAT’s transmission can be triggered by telecommand or by a timer. 
During this initial mission phase we have communicated only over the Europe 
but if we know that there are people that are ready to listen to D-SAT in 
the US we can absolutely schedule some dedicated transmission over that 
area. For instance, we can schedule a SatAlert experiment transmission and 
some telemetry transmissions.

We just need to know when your visibility window starts 😊 !!

The involvement of radio amateurs in the U.S. could be much greater during 
the decommissioning phase because we are interested in collecting the 
telemetry data that will then be automatically transmitted during the 
re-entry trajectory. The final reentry maneuver, planned during the first 
week of August, will be activated the Italy, where D-SAT will start lowering 
its altitude, it will then pass over the North Pole to finally it reentry in 
the Pacific Ocean (closer to Hawaii).

I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you need more information!

Sincerely,
Alessio


-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: AMSAT-BB [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] Per conto di Scott
Inviato: lunedì 24 luglio 2017 18:59
A: amsat-bb at amsat.org
Oggetto: Re: [amsat-bb] D-SAT Mission

Congratulations on your project so far, Alessio.

I have a question, please...

Does D-SAT transmit over locations other than Europe?

I have seen great posts from others reporting reception of D-SAT, but over 
the U.S., I have not had any luck receiving the satellite.

If only SOME of the possible data is transmitted outside of Europe, it would 
be helpful if you would like to provide a list of what one might expect to 
receive.

Thanks very much!

-Scott,  K4KDR
Montpelier, VA  USA


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-----Original Message-----
From: IU5CRE via AMSAT-BB
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 12:38 PM
To: amsat-bb at amsat.org
Subject: [amsat-bb] D-SAT Mission

Dear Sirs,

my name is Alessio Fanfani; I'm a young telecommunication engineer and an 
enthusiastic Italian satellite amateur (callsign IU5CRE).

Three years ago I started to work with D-Orbit, an Italian aerospace 
company, on an ambitious CubeSat mission called D-SAT.

D-Sat is a three-unit CubeSat designed, built, and operated by D-Orbit and 
it will be the first satellite in history that will come back into Earth's 
atmosphere in a safe and controlled way by means of a dedicated solid rocket 
motor and burn up instead of becoming new debris.

D-SAT was launched on June 23th, 2017 into a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit 
from Indian SHAR.

D-SAT is now fully operative in orbit and it is hosting three communication 
experiments in collaboration with an Italian university, high-level schools 
and a local hamradio community.

For more information on D-SAT, you can visit the mission's website 
(www.dsat.space), where you will also find a page entirely dedicated to 
radiohams (www.dsat.space/radiohams) where you can download the software 
necessary for the reception of D-Sat's signal.

We really hope you will consider joining us! Also, should you have any 
question about the mission, don't hesitate to ask!

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Alessio Fanfani, IU5CRE