Thursday, October 11, 2012

Mini Satellites






FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA)


Tiny Satellites Leave Station
ISS033-E-009458 (4 Oct. 2012) --- Several tiny satellites are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 33 crew member on the International Space Station. The satellites were released outside the Kibo laboratory using a Small Satellite Orbital Deployer attached to the Japanese module's robotic arm on Oct. 4, 2012. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide, flight engineer, set up the satellite deployment gear inside the lab and placed it in the Kibo airlock. The Japanese robotic arm then grappled the deployment system and its satellites from the airlock for deployment.

FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA)

Has been developed as a 5.8GHz high speed transmitter for artificial satellites. It consists of an exciter module with a 115.2kbps FSK modulator and a liner amplifier which amplifies a 10mW signal to 4W. We are now developing a small artificial satellite named FITSAT-1. It also has the nickname “NIWAKA”. The shape is a 10cm cube, and the weight is 1.33kg.
The main mission of this satellite is to demonstrate the high speed transmitter developed. It can send a jpeg VGA-picture(480×640) within 6 seconds.
FITSAT-1, will write messages in the night sky with Morse code, helping researchers test out optical communication techniques for satellites. After its deployment from the orbiting lab, the cubesat’s high-output LEDs will blink in flash mode, generating a Morse code beacon signal. The flashing light from FITSAT-1 will be received by a Fukuoka Institute of Technology ground station that has a telescope and a photo-multiplier device linked to an antenna.
(The others are classified )




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