Quick question

[T G]

Hi everyone

Can I clarify what has been heard so far?  I know the Kicksat2 beacon has been copied, but has anyone been able to identify signals as coming from chipsats?  Has it been determined that the sprites have been released?

Regards

Terry

[Andy Thomas]

The Sprites have not been heard.

They are very low powered and will not transmit continuously at any time.

Considering the first Kicksat mission, I remember that the Sprites have no batteries onboard and will only boot up when in the correct angle relative to the sun. They are likely to be tumbling and occluded for at least some of the time, and so will not transmit for that portion of the time. I dont know the time taken to boot up the system, probably very short, but the board won't transmit until it does, and will abruptly cut off when the sun angle changes or it is occluded suddenly.

Again from the first mission, the release of the Sprites from the mother satellite was automatic by an electronic timer.

Hearing the Sprites was supposed to take place using a special software radio designed and available on the github at the address at the top of the page. Actually I have built one, running under Linux, but added a rf filter and a preamplifier in series, and enclosed the lot in a farady cage, as I don't think much of the sdr dongle radio part. There was some talk the last time about recording passes at known times then sending the recorded i/o file to a data warehouse, but I have not seen this mentioned with kicksat-2.

hope this helps

andy g0sfj

[Rob Fryer in San Diego]

Terry, Andy and the rest of the group, 

I am hoping there will be baseband recordings made at our Sprite frequency 

during some 'good passes' by multiple high quality ground stations.. 

And that they will share. 

I have driven by NASA Ames and seen those big dishes.  

Cross you fingers on that. 

I have also looked at Amazon Groundstation Service. 

Unclear if they do baseband recordings, but they should. 

I assume all they need is the TLEs, frequency and credit card. 

The baseband recordings can be post-processed to pull out 

the telemetry from individual Sprites.   

This allows for repeated adjustment for frequency drift and Doppler shift 

to get the best data signal. 

This is a powerful and seldom discussed tool. 

A while ago in San Diego, our Verne San Diego KickSat Team 

did test our Engineering Sprite transmitting to one of the Arrow yagi and 

$10 dongle receivers and laptop  over about 1/2 mile. 

But 250+ miles is a little more challenging. 

KickSat  is a spectacular space project and when it starts to work 

and we get telemetry back down from the Sprites,  

high school science teachers should be empowered. 

I have learned so much, and there is plenty still to learn. 

Using the attitude pulser for instance. 

Rob 

San Diego KickSat Team 

medi...@aol.com