Due nuovi satelliti giapponesi possono aiutare i radioamatori a fare dei test verso lo spazio profondo

Questo mese, e più specificatamente il 29 novembre,  la Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) lancerà due nuovi satelliti per l’esplorazione dello spazio profondo.

Tutti i Radioamatori avranno così la possibilità di testare i propri sistemi ed antenne e riuscire a misurare la distanza massima di ricezione del proprio shack, potendo anche controllare l’esatta posizione del satellite tramite la frequenza e il segnale di telemetria.
Le frequenze sono tutte dentro la banda concessa, quindi se volete provare ad inseguire i due ‘esploratori piccoletti’ Shin’en 2 (Abyss 2) e ARTSAT2, non avete che da leggere il seguente bollettino rilasciato giovedì 20/09 dall’ARRL.

SB SPACE ARL ARLS008
ARLS008 Two Japanese Satellites Will Carry Ham Radio Payloads into
Deep Space this Month

Two Amateur Radio satellites, Shin’en 2 (Abyss 2) and ARTSAT2:
DESPATCH, will be heading into deep space this month. The satellites
will hitch a ride with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Hayabusa 2 asteroid mission, which is scheduled to launch on
November 29.

A 17 kg, 50 cm diameter polyhedron, Shin’en 2, developed by Kyushu Institute of Technology and Kagoshima University, will be the first satellite to carry an Amateur Radio Mode J linear transponder into deep space. The inverting SSB/CW transponder uplink will be 145.940 to 145.960MHz (LSB), and the downlink will be 435.280 to 435.260 MHz
(USB). It also will include a CW beacon on 437.505 MHz and WSJT telemetry on 437.385 MHz. Inclusion of the transponder will offer an opportunity for earthbound radio amateurs to test the limits of their communication capabilities. The project also is hoping to gather listener reports.

“For confirming the operational status of the spacecraft in deep space, the know-how of the Moon-reflecting communication technology can be applied. By using an Amateur Radio service transponder, amateur stations can communicate with each other when the spacecraft
is in near-Moon orbit,” a project outline on the Shin’en 2 website explained at, http://kit-okuyama-lab.com/en/sinen2/sinen2-outline/ .

“Beyond this distance, signal detection by Morse code and telemetry data transmitted from the spacecraft will be performed.” The Hayabasa 2 project is expected to help pave the way for future lunar rover missions.

The Sin’en 2 satellite makes extensive use of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic materials that can be bonded by heat to reduce its weight and the number of hardware fasteners.

Hayabusa 2 will make a round trip to the C-type asteroid 1999 JU3, arriving at the asteroid in mid-2018. It then would survey and take samples of the asteroid before departing in December 2019, and return to Earth in December 2020.

Shin’en 2 will be placed into an elliptical orbit around the Sun and travel into a deep space between Venus and Mars. Its inclination will be almost zero, which means Shin-En2 will stay in the Earth’s equatorial plane. The distance from the Sun will be between 0.7 and 1.3 AU (an astronomical unit is 149,597,871 km).

The ARTSAT2:DESPATCH “art project” satellite – a 1U CubeSat – is a joint project by students at Tama Art University and Tokyo University. It will carry a 30 kg “deep space sculpture” developed using a 3D printer, as well as an Amateur Radio payload, a CW beacon at 437.325 MHz. At its maximum operational distance, it will be some 3 million km (1.86 million miles) from Earth about a week after launch.