[amsat-bb] Project HAND

[Richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Richard W L Limebear)]

Project HAND:

One of Amsat-UK's declared aims is the promotion and development of space 
satellites for amateur radio communication and associated experimental 
scientific or educational work.

The University of Bristol's Human Activated Nano-satellite Demonstration 
(HAND) is a small satellite intended to prove the capabilities of a hand 
deployed satellite platform. It is designed to be carried into orbit in the 
Space Shuttle's cabin and then deployed by an astronaut during an EVA. If 
successful then the platform can be used on other applications-orientated 
projects. 

Current thinking envisages the use of a 2m or 70cm downlink which might use 
a terrestrial packet radio format similar to that used by the DOVE 
spacecraft; if this is the case then telemetry decoding software will be 
made generally available before the flight which is not expected in less 
than a year. Powered by dry cells, HAND-1 is expected to have a limited 
lifetime - probably less than a week.

Amsat-UK were consulted in the earliest stages of the project with a view 
to the use of amateur radio frequencies and, having been assured that such 
usage would be appropriate, the Amsat-UK committee have endorsed this usage. 

Co-operation between the University of Bristol and Amsat-UK continues and 
both sides are finding this alliance to be worthwhile. Design is still in 
the early stages so there is no other information to publish about the 
project yet. Watch this space ...

73
Richard W L Limebear G3RWL
g3rwl@amsat.org
Communications Officer, Amsat-UK
FOC # 1188
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