[amsat-bb] Montana's CubeSat

[Al Zoller <n7ub@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello AMSAT community,
Here is a posting from Montana State U., Space Science & Engineering Lab.
Please note that Merope has the only 2m down link of any of the CubeSats
to be launched tomorrow. Should make one of the easiest to copy. Please help
and listen for Merope and report your results.
73 de N7UB, Al
AMSAT Area Coordinator, LM 1505

AMSAT community:
We are looking for Ham Radio Operators who can help us listen to our 
satellite's beacon. We are especially hoping that someone is Western 
Europe will be listening 26July2006 21:10 UTC as our first pass in 
Montana (USA) is almost 9 hours later.

The goal of MEROPE is that of Explorer-1. Explorer-1 was the United 
States' first satellite and the world's first scientific satellite.  It 
was launched by NASA in 1958. Explorer-1's mission was to measure 
radiation in the Van Allen belts. The Van Allen belts surround the earth 
at the edge of its atmosphere. They include both inner and outer layers. 
The inner layer is made of protons left by the decay of cosmic ray 
induced albedo from the atmosphere. The outer layer is made up of 
electrons that are produced by injection and energization events 
following geomagnetic storms. These belts are generally known for their 
negative effects. They cause satellite components, particularly 
semiconductor and optical devices to degrade. It also induces background 
noise in detectors, causes error in digital circuits, induces 
electrostatic charge-up in insulators, and is even a threat to astronauts.

MEROPE will broadcast at 145.980 Mhz over wireless serial link, bell 202 
compatible, every 2 minutes. Please send beacon reports to 
ssel_ops@ssel.montana.edu with your name/location, any data that you 
receive, time of contact, and signal strength.
Frequency: 145.980 Mhz
Speed: 1200bps
Email to: ssel_ops@ssel.montana.edu
Include: name, location, data, time, signal strength


ASCII status message format
  Example status message, with bytes numbered:
0         1         2         3         4         5
01234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678

K7MSU-01 0000~123456 / 00 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 / a9 00011


Meaning of the bytes:
0 - 7 HAM identifier
8 space separator
9-12 two-most-significant bytes of saved sysclk, hex representation
13 tilde separator
14-19 all 3 bytes (big-endian) of current sysclk, hex representation
20-22 separator
23-24 housekeeping channel 0 (Communications radio temperature)
25 space separator
26-27 housekeeping channel 1 (Battery current (generation))
28 space separator
29-30 housekeeping channel 2 (Battery current (use))
31 space separator
32-33 housekeeping channel 3 (Battery temperature)
34 space separator
35-36 housekeeping channel 4 (Battery voltage)
37 space separator
38-39 housekeeping channel 5 (High voltage supply temperature)
40 space separator
41-42 housekeeping channel 6 (High voltage monitor)
43 space separator
44-45 housekeeping channel 7 (CPU temperature)
46-48 separator
49-50 High Voltage reference voltage byte, hex representation, one of 
{a9, ba,cb}
51 space separator
52 High Voltage on/off status flag
53 hamming encoding flag
54 attitude collection flag
55 heartbeat flag
56 payload N multiplier flag (1 => high, 0 => low)
57-58 CRLF line terminator (not visible)
Boot Configuration
· High Voltage reference voltage: 0xA9, 2.5 V
· High Voltage: off
· hamming encoding: off
· attitude collection: off
· heartbeat: on
· payload N multiplier: high
Launch Time: 19:43:00 July 26, 2006 UTC
Orbit:
500 - 600 km Circular Orbit
Sun-synchronous
Inclination: 97.43 deg
LTAN: 11:25 (UTC)
RAAN: 115.67 deg
Preliminary Keplerian Elements (TLE) P-POD D
1 XXXXXU 06XXXXXXX 06207.83205000 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 0000X
2 XXXXX 097.4300 115.6700 0064000 189.6300 349.5800 15.0578000000001X

Relevant Links:
http://www.ssel.montana.edu/merope/
http://polysat.calpoly.edu/earthstation/status/status.html#merope
http://showcase.netins.net/web/wallio/CubeSat.htm
----
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