Ideas sought for the next FUNcube satellite

Ideas sought for the next FUNcube satellite

AO-73 (FUNcube-1) – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

In November the FUNcube-1 CubeSat will have been in orbit for 6 years and the FUNcube team are now soliciting suggestions for the next satellite

The team are looking for suggestions for:
• Conformation of the satellite (2U / 3U)
• Orbit (LEO / MEO)
• STEM Outreach
• Amateur Radio Payloads
• Research Payloads

Please email your ideas to:
funcube-next funcube.org.uk

The topic will be discussed during the AMSAT-UK Colloquium on Sunday 13th October 2019 https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/

If you would like to join the team, please email:
operations funcube.org.uk

Dave, G4DPZ
on behalf of the FUNcube Team

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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Threat to Amateur Radio 23cm band

Threat to Amateur Radio 23cm band

Galileo LogoA joint paper by France, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia and The Netherlands for the CEPT CPG meeting in Ankara, August 26-30, attacks the continued use by Radio Amateurs of our 1240-1300 MHz band.

This is the final CEPT CPG meeting in preparation for the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 28 to November 22. This conference will define the Agenda Items for WRC-23.

Paper AI10 – Proposal on AS-RNSS says:

Galileo is close to full operational capability and its E6 signals in the band 1260-1300 MHz will support new services such as the free-to-use Galileo High Accuracy Service, and also robust authentication, expected to be used by a variety of applications including autonomous vehicles and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Several cases of interference to Galileo E6 receivers from amateur service emissions have occurred in the recent past, sometimes at significant distance, and have taken several hours or even days to be eliminated. There is therefore a serious concern that as Galileo E6 receivers are deployed and used more widely, cases of interference from amateur stations will rapidly grow in number.

A WRC-23 agenda item is necessary to address this issue because:

1. Unregulated use of the band 1240-1300 MHz by the amateur service is a serious source of harmful interference to RNSS receivers. This is demonstrated by experience.

2. The number of Galileo receivers in 1260-1300 MHz will increase dramatically, and interference cases will multiply if not addressed timely.

3. Galileo and other RNSS systems will deploy at global scale, and interference scenario between amateur emissions and RNSS receivers include cross-border cases. The issue is therefore of international nature and is to be addressed in the ITU framework.

4. Galileo is a major European asset, and a decision at WRC-23 is essential to be compatible with the roadmap of deployment of Galileo receivers in this band.

Download Paper: AI10 – Proposal on AS-RNSS from
https://cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/cpg/client/meeting-documents/?flid=10031

Also see the IARU paper: RNSS Proposal WRC-19 AI 10 at the same URL

Some background information is at
https://amsat-uk.org/2019/05/31/1240-1300-mhz-band-discussed-by-cept-wgfm-and-cpg-pta/

European Commission Joint Research Centre report written 2014 and published 2015 on Compatibility between Amateur Radio Services and Galileo in the 1260-1300 MHz Radio Frequency Band. It reports the effect of transmissions of 0.1, 1 and 15 watts EIRP on a Galileo receiver up to 10 km away – download PDF here

January 2006 – Potential Interference To Galileo From 23cm Band Operations by Peter Blair G3LTF
http://www.southgatearc.org/articles/galileo.htm

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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Station Preps for New Docking Port During Science and Soyuz Checks

Station Preps for New Docking Port During Science and Soyuz Checks

The SpaceX Dragon above the Nile River Delta
The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship is pictured attached to the International Space Station’s Harmony module as the orbital complex flew 260 miles above the Nile River Delta in Egypt.

Three NASA astronauts remain focused on preparations for next week’s spacewalk at the International Space Station. The rest of the Expedition 60 focused on biology research and a pair of docked spaceships.

Flight Engineer Christina Koch has been supporting spacewalkers Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan, as they get ready for the fifth spacewalk of the year on Aug. 21. The pair will install the new International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3) to the Harmony module’s space-facing port during the six-and-a-half-hour job.

Koch printed out checklists the spacewalkers will wear on their spacesuit cuffs and verified the spacesuits are the correct size. She also joined Hague and Morgan reviewing next week’s spacewalk procedures. The spacewalking duo also set up the Quest airlock where they will collect their tools and suit up ahead of their excursion.

Robotics controllers will remotely command the Canadarm2 to detach the IDA-3 from the rear portion of the SpaceX Dragon on Monday. They will maneuver the new docking port to a pressurized mating adapter on top of Harmony readying it for Wednesday’s spacewalk. Hague and Morgan in their U.S. spacesuits will then route cables and configure hardware readying the IDA-3 for new SpaceX and Boeing crew ships.

Luca Parmitano, a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut on his second station mission, worked on a biology experiment today with potential benefits for the medicine industry. He tended to stem cell samples growing in a specialized incubator to help researchers understand cell behavior in space.

Cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Alexander Skvortsov checked out two docked Soyuz crew ships today. The duo tested and recharged communications gear in the vehicles and continued packing gear for return to Earth.

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Mark Garcia

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NASA Marshall to Lead Artemis Program’s Human Lunar Lander Development

NASA Marshall to Lead Artemis Program’s Human Lunar Lander Development

 

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was joined Friday by U.S. Representatives Mo Brooks and Robert Aderholt of Alabama and Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to announce the center’s new role leading the agency’s Human Landing System Program for its return to the Moon by 2024.

 

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NASA Breaking News

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