{"id":3256,"date":"2022-01-07T13:08:57","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T17:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necoram.com\/09132025septtangovictor98\/launch-of-easat-2-and-hades-satellites\/"},"modified":"2022-01-07T13:08:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T17:08:57","slug":"launch-of-easat-2-and-hades-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necoram.com\/09132025septtangovictor98\/launch-of-easat-2-and-hades-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch of EASAT-2 and HADES satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Launch of EASAT-2 and HADES satellites<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

\"EASAT-2<\/a>The EASAT-2 and HADES satellites, each carrying an FM transponder and digipeater, are expected to launch on January 13 at 15:25 GMT on the SpaceX Falcon-9 Transporter-3 mission.<\/p>\n

A translation of a post by Spain\u2019s URE reads:<\/p>\n

The Scottish space broker\u00a0Alba Orbital\u00a0has confirmed the correct integration of\u00a0the EASAT-2 and Hades satellites\u00a0in the\u00a0Falcon-9vehicle, using the company\u2019s\u00a0AlbaPOD\u00a0ejector. It is confirmed, except for exceptional circumstances, the launch for\u00a0this Thursday, January 13, initially at 15.25 UTC (16.25 Spanish peninsular time).\u00a0Both satellites should have been launched a year ago, but the problems of the\u00a0Momentusintegrator, on whose\u00a0Vigoride\u00a0vehicle\u00a0albaPod\u00a0ejectors of Alba Orbital were to be integrated with the American administration, caused this delay.\u00a0Momentus\u00a0was replaced by\u00a0Exolaunch\u00a0for the flight.<\/p>\n

Both satellites offer\u00a0FM voice communications\u00a0and data relay in\u00a0FSK or AFSK up to 2400 bps,such as\u00a0AX.25 or APRS frames.\u00a0They also broadcast voice beacons on FM with the\u00a0callsigns AM5SAT\u00a0and\u00a0AM6SAT,as well as CW.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0EASAT-2satellite, designed and built jointly by\u00a0AMSAT-EA\u00a0and\u00a0students of the European University of the Degrees in Aerospace Engineering in Aircraft and in Telecommunication Systems Engineering,with contributions from\u00a0ICAI\u00a0in the communications part, incorporates as experimental cargo\u00a0basaltic material from Lanzarote,similar to lunar basalts, provided by the\u00a0research group on meteorites and planetary geosciences of the CSIC at the Institute of Geosciences, IGEO (CSIC-UCM)\u00a0and that\u00a0could be used as a building material on the Moon.\u00a0This project was promoted and has the collaboration of the\u00a0ETSICCP\u00a0(UPM).<\/p>\n

The\u00a0UNESCO world geopark of Lanzarote and Chinijo archipelago\u00a0has been used for various investigations as an analogue of the Moon and Mars, including also the instruction of ESA astronauts. The selected basaltic material\u00a0meets the requirements to be used as a simulant of the basalt existing on the Moon.\u00a0The purpose of the experiment is to determine its evolution in space based on periodic measurements of some of its properties. Although the experiment is limited and constitutes a first phase of this type of study, it is an important milestone as it is the first of its kind introduced on such a small satellite.<\/p>\n

As for\u00a0Hades,its payload consists of a miniature camera module that sends the captured images as an audio signal in\u00a0SSTVmode. The SSTV formats it uses are compatible with Robot36, Robot72, MP73 and MP115.<\/p>\n

The design is based on the one used in the successful mission of the\u00a0PSAT2satellite, an amateur radio satellite of the\u00a0United States Naval Academy\u00a0and\u00a0brno University of Technology.\u00a0This chamber has been operational since June 25, 2019: (http:\/\/www.aprs.org\/psat2.html<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The camera chip is the Omnivision OV2640, which provides a resolution of up to 2M pixels and compressed output in JPEG. Resolution is limited by the CPU\u2019s internal memory (MCU) that controls the camera to 320\u00d7240 (typical) or 640\u00d7480 maximum. The MCU selected for the control is the STM32F446RET6, which has the smallest possible footprint with connection to DCMI peripheral, necessary for connection with the camera.<\/p>\n

Images can be stored on a 2 MB serial\u00a0flash memory.\u00a0The complete SSTV encoder has managed to be implemented in a 4-layer PCB with dimensions of only 38x38mm.<\/p>\n

The MCU can be fully controlled from ground stations. The firmware allows the\u00a0sending of images of the camera live,of im\u00e1genes previously saved\u00a0in the flash memory or of\u00a0images encoded in ROM.\u00a0It also provides advance programming of image acquisition and PSK telemetry with the current status (event counters, temperature, voltage, light conditions, etc.) and a brief summary.<\/p>\n

The described module has been developed and manufactured at the Department of Radioelectronics of the Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic. Both hardware and firmware designs with the source codes will be available on Github under the MIT license (https:\/\/github.com\/alpov\/SatCam).<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Initially only the EASAT-2 repeater is active. Hades\u2019 will be activated by telecommand a few days after launch.<\/p>\n

The frequencies coordinated with IARU for both satellites are as follows:<\/p>\n

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EASAT-2<\/strong><\/div>\n
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