[aprssig] Slightly off topic - Cubesats

[Scott Miller]

Working on a cubesat digi right now.  I don't have any guarantees yet 
that it'll fly on any particular bird, but even if the more immediate 
possibilities don't pan out at least it'll be ready.  I'm making it as 
small as possible without resorting to hidden lead packages that can't 
be inspected with an optical microscope.  I've also been getting a lot 
of requests for a small Tracker2 that can be integrated into radios 
other than the DR-135T, so maybe I'll try to make it suitable for that 
as well and get some terrestrial use out of the hardware.

I'm planning to include a couple of serial flash ICs, which will let me 
reuse code from both the ADS-SR1 (for simplex repeater, voicemail and 
announcement functions) and the still-unreleased SSTV sender as well. 
The ADS-SR1 is actually already capable of over-the-air firmware 
updates, it just needs some tweaks (and a feedback mechanism) to make it 
usable for satellite applications.  It's also getting an external 
watchdog IC to supplement the internal watchdog - it can be set to a 
period of hours or days, so it should make a good command loss timer.

Scott
N1VG

Chuck Kimball wrote:
> Now if we could just get some digipeaters included...
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 3
> From: National Science Foundation Update <nsf-update at nsf.gov>
> Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2008 15:31:09 -0500 (CDT)
> Subject: National Science Foundation Awards Contract to Build 
> "CubeSats"
> 
> National Science Foundation Awards Contract to Build 
> "CubeSats" 
> <http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112341&govDel=USNSF_51>
> 
> Illustration of CubeSats used in space weather and atmospheric research 
> orbiting the Earth.
> 
> A new series of CubeSats, small satellites in the shapes of cubes, will 
> soon take to the skies. Using the CubeSats, scientists will conduct 
> space weather research impossible with other instruments.
> 
> The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a contract to SRI 
> International, an independent non-profit research and development 
> organization based in Menlo Park, Calif., to carry out the first space 
> weather CubeSat mission.
> 
> CubeSats are tiny satellites with dimensions of ...
> 
> More at 
> http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112341&govDel=USNSF_51 
> <http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112341&govDel=USNSF_51>
> 
> 
> This is an NSF News item.
> 
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