FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA)

A Small Artificial Satellite Developed at the Fukuoka Institute of Technology

FITSAT Project: Takushi Tanaka (JA6AVG)


News

********************************************************************
"Web Based Observatory" helps to find flashing NIWAKA.
********************************************************************


20130709  JA0CAW uploads the last beacon on youtube.
         -----------------------------------
          last telemetry from JA0CAW:
          3:07(UTC)    s5 *****8a2
                       s1 eefd19bb
                       s2 79fe7f7d
                       s3 97969392
                       s4 23242828
                       s5 1867393a
                       s1 e92419d8
                       s2 74fc7***
        ------------------------------------
          last telemetry from JA1GDE:
          3:09:05(UTC) S* 1867393*
          3:09:30(UTC) HI DE NIWAKA JAPAN
                       __ _____9B8
                       S2____
        ------------------------------------
          
20130707 I have sorted the reports around decay on 4th July: (1) 3:07(U) JA0CAW received telemetry of FITSAT-1. (2) 3:09(U) JA1GDE received telemetry of FITSAT-1. (3) 4:33(U) JR8LWY received only carrier not Morse. (4) 4:33(U) JR5EPQ received only carrier not Morse. (5) 4:37(U) JA0CAW could not receive Morse. (6) 4:38(U) JG6YEW(GS of FITSAT-1) could not receive Morse. (7) 5:37(U) PU1SLF saw the glow at Campos-RJ-Brazil. (8) 5:57(U) DK3WN received only carrier not Morse. (9) 6:08(U) JA6PL could not receive Morse. (10) 7:20(U) PA3GUO could not copy. 20130704 FITSAT-1 has decayed on 4th July 2013. The last telemetry was received by JA0CAW at 03:07(UTC). I appreciate all people who joined our experiments, helped our operations, and sent me many reports. 20130628 FITSAT-1 will soon decay. I appreciate if I could receive the last signal report. The last one will be useful to decide the decay position. 20130622 My presentation at RAST2013 is "Overview and Operations of FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA)". I have enjoyed RAST2013 at Istanbul, not only the conference but also the entertainment (52MByte) and the night cruising (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11). 20130601 I am going abroad from 3rd to 16th June to attend the conference RAST2013. Probably, I can receive e-mail not everyday. 20130522 Current Flashing Plan: 29th May 04:57:00 - 04:59:00 (UT) Colorado USA (10Hz Green) From 30th May to 4th June, the temperature of FITSAT increses by full sunshine. So we can not flash LEDs because of heat problem. 20130518 Current Flashing Plan: 20th May 09:03:30 - 09:05:30 (UT) Colorado USA (10Hz Green) 20130517 The orbiral plane of NIWAKA faces to the sun around 1st June. Niwaka will be full sunlit, and all temperatures of NIWAKA will increase. If you could receive the beacon (437.250MHz, CW), the telemetry data will show an interesting graph. JA0CAW sent me the graph of NIWAKA illuminatted by the sun around the full sunlit. The black strip shows the time of shade. 20130515 5.8GHz Problem: As we didn't download the whole pictures at the deployment, we hesitated to send a new shutter command. But, this caused the trouble. In order to generate 2W RF-output, it needs more than 15W DC-input. As the weight limit of Cubesat, we couldn't attach enough heat sink for 5.8GHz transmitter. The transmitter sends 20 pictures at a time. One picture is sent with 2 to 6 sec. So, we placed 5 sec interval between sending pictures for heat diffusion. End of this January, we try to download the whole picture again. The first picture was normal, but the second one continues 16 minutes. Probably, the picture size became FFFF... because of volatilized memory. I thought the final IC was burned. We sent a new shutter command over Australia to refresh picture memory. The front camera and the rear camera took 20 pictures alternately with 5 sec interval. Then we sent the download command on 6th February. The 5.8GHz transmitter was not burned, but the transmitter changed to send only one picture. The first picture by the front camera took the sun. The latest experiment, we couldn't receive 5.8GHz signal, though we got acknowledge of download command in 437MHz. (last picture from NIWAKA on 6th Feb.) 20130514 Current flashing plan: 20th May 09:03:00 - 09:05:00 (UT) (tentative) Colorado USA (10Hz Green) 20130509 FITSAT Japanese web-page moved to: FITSAT Japan 20130506 Current flashing plan: 8th May 06:46:00 - 06:48:00 (UT) (tentative) Argentina (10Hz Red) 14th May 01:18:00 - 01:20:00 (UT) (tentative) Israel (10Hz Green) 20130414 We have failed to send delay command for 15th Apr. because of thunder. 20130413 I was surprised at: "JR5EPQ took 4 pictures of 5 flashings (3,5,7,11,13 Apr.) over Japan". (1) 20h46m25s(JST) 3rd Apr. (2) 20h47m10s(JST) 3rd Apr. (3) 01h46m26s(JST) 11th Apr. (4) 01h05m35s(JST) 13th Apr. 20130411 11th Apr. 23:12:35 - 23:14:35 (UT) (set) Mr. Shozo Sasaoka took a picture of flashing NIWAKA. 20130410 Current Flashing Plan 11th Apr. 23:13:00 - 23:15:00 (UT) (tentative) Italy (10Hz Green) 15th Apr. 03:31:30 - 03:33:30 (UT) (tentative) NY, Boston (10Hz Green) 20130408 8th Apr. 06:41:24 - 06:43:24 (UT) (set) New York (10Hz Green) 9th Apr. 23:53:28 - 23:55:28 (UT) (set) Italy (10Hz Green) 20130405 Miss Yumiko Kuribayashi took a picture of flashing NIWAKA at Oguni Kumamoto, Japan on 3rd Apr. She uesd Canon EOS 5D Mark3, Sigma APO 70-200mm F2.8, ISO12800, T=5sec, 200mm, f2.8 20130404 Current Flashing Plan (Time adjusted using latest TLE) 8th Apr. 06:41:00 - 06:43:00 (UT) (tentative) New York (10Hz Green) 9th Apr. 23:53:30 - 23:55:30 (UT) (tentative) Italy (10Hz Green) 11th Apr. 23:13:30 - 23:15:30 (UT) (tentative) Italy (10Hz Green) 15th Apr. 03:32:30 - 03:34:30 (UT) (tentative) New York (10Hz Green) 20130328: Current Flashing Plan (Time will be adjusted using latest TLE): 8th Apr. 06:44:30 - 06:46:30 (UT) (tentative) New York (10Hz Green) 9th Apr. 23:56:00 - 23:58:00 (UT) (tentative) Italy (10Hz Green) 11th Apr. 23:17:00 - 23:19:00 (UT) (tentative) Italy (10Hz Green) 15th Apr. 03:43:00 - 03:45:00 (UT) (tentative) New York (10Hz Green) 20130316: Current Flashing Plan: 17th Mar. 15:37:00 - 15:39:00 (UT) South West Australia (10Hz Red) 18th Mar. 13:03:30 - 13:05:30 (UT) South East Australia (10Hz Red) (postpone) 3rd Apr. 17:53:00 - 17:55:00 (UT) (tentative)Israel (10Hz Green) 20130312: Current Flashing Plan: (failed to send command) 16th Mar. 13:35:30 - 13:37:30 (UT) South East Australia (10Hz Red) 17th Mar. 15:37:00 - 15:39:00 (UT) South West Australia (10Hz Red) 3rd Apr. 17:53:00 - 17:55:00 (UT) (tentative)Israel (10Hz Green) 20130306: Current Flashing Plan: 7th Mar. 11:39:30 - 11:41:30 UTC South West Australia (10Hz Red) (postpone)14th Mar. 02:12:30 - 02:14:30 UTC Israel (10Hz Green) 20130219: Mr. Noriyuki Yamamoto, Hatano Kanagawa Japan took flashing NIWAKA at 23:52:11 (JST) on 13th Feb. using Kenko SE250N 1200mm, shutter=6sec, LPS-P2 filter, Canon EOS6D ISO12800. 20130215: Current Flashing Plan: 17th Feb. 06:41:30 - 06:43:30 UTC Buenos Aires Argentina (10Hz Red) 19th Feb. 0r:16:00 - 06:18:00 UTC Mar del Plata Argentina (10Hz Red) 14th Mar. 21:27:30 - 21:29:30 UTC (tentative) Israel (10Hz Green) 20130214: Mr. Yujiro Suzuki, Kimizyu Chiba Japan took flashing NIWAKA last night using the lens f=180mm F2.8, shutter=6sec, ISO3200x2 body. (very faint) 20130213: Mr. Noriyuki Yamamoto took a picture of flashing NIWAKA Flashing plan added: 14th Feb. 21:28:00 - 21:30:00 UTC South Europe (10Hz Green) 14th Mar. 21:27:30 - 21:29:30 UTC (tentative) Israel (10Hz Green) 20130212: Flashing plan added: 13th Feb. 22:28:00 - 22:30:00 UTC France, Swiss, Italy,... (10Hz Green) 20130210: We have noticed that NIWAKA increses its rotation speed. Time of one cycle was 33 sec at 12 Nov. But, now it is 12 sec.

The graph shows the voltage of each solar panel. The changing voltage shows NIWAKA turns around Z-axis from +X(blue), +Y(red), -X(green), -Y(purple).
I plot the period(T:blue) and frequency(F:red) from 2nd November 2012.

I have no idea on the reason. Let me know if you have any idea. NIWAKA does not have any mechanism like Crookes radiometer. Its structure is almost symmetry around Z-axis.
20130208: We have received the optical report from Mark K9GX that Mr. Don Spain took the picture. We have not confirmed yet. 20130203: Plan changed: 6th Feb. 01:21:30 - 01:23:30 UTC KY,IN,OH,WV,IL USA (10Hz Green) 20130131: Flashing plan added (time will be changed by the latest TLE): 9th Feb. 09:32:30 - 09:34:30 UTC CA, OR USA (10Hz Green) (changed) 17th Feb. 06:43:30 - 06:45:30 UTC Buenos Aires Argentina (10Hz Red) (changed) 19th Feb. 06:18:00 - 06:20:00 UTC Mar del Plata Argentina (10Hz Red) 20130129: Flashing plan added (time will be changed by the latest TLE): 1st Feb. 13:53:30 - 13:55:30 UTC Beijing China (10Hz Green) (changed) 6th Feb. 01:21:00 - 01:23:00 UTC KY,IN,OH,WV,IL USA (10Hz Green) 20130123: Current flashing plan (time will be changed by the latest TLE): (changed) 1st Feb. 13:51:30 - 13:53:30 UTC Beijing China (10Hz Green) (changed) 9th Feb. 09:30:00 - 09:32:00 UTC West Coast of USA (10Hz Green) 20130121: We have learned through the experiments of flashing NIWAKA: 1. The night sky mast be dark enough such as to see the milky way. 2. Successful photos use around F4, 400mm lens and ISO12800 camera. 3. Most people noticed their success after took photos and magnified. This means the camera must be turned to the accurate direction, and shuttered at exact time. Multiple shutters will be useful. 4. The green beam always turns to the magnetic north, and the red beam terns to the magnetic south, so the beams do not turn to the ground around the equator. In order to observe the light, higher latitude will be good result. As observing the light is not so easy, we will flash the light on requests. If you have a plan for observing the light, please advice me the time and date with your latitude and longitude. Now we have a plan for flashing at 09:25:00 on 9th Feb. for the west coast of USA. 20130116: Mr. Shozo Sasaoka JR5EPQ took a photo of flashing NIWAKA this morning. I was surprised because it was taken in north path through high elevation. The following picture incresed the contrast.
20130113: Miss Jodie Reynolds K6JLR and Mr. Will Bierman took nice photos of flashing object (f=40mm, 2.5sec exposure), 2013.01.11.13:53:07 2013.01.11.13:53:24 but not confirmed. As it was just before dawn, other satellites were also bright by sunlit. 20130111: New flashing plan (tentative): 12th Jan. 15:38:00 - 15:40:00 UTC SE Australia (10Hz Red) 14th Jan. 11:02:30 - 11:04:30 UTC Central USA (10Hz Green) (changed) 15th Jan. 22:26:00 - 22:28:00 UTC Wulmuqi China (10Hz Green) (changed) 17th Jan. 20:22:48 - 20:24:48 UTC Central India (10Hz Green) 19th Jan. 03:19:00 - 03:21:00 UTC North Italy (10Hz Green) 20130108: I have noticed the followings by Mr. Simone Corbellini's advice: The orbital plane of NIWAKA was right angle to the Sun around 3rd Jan. This means NIWAKA appears at dawn or dusk all over the world. Now it appears before dawn, but NIWAKA may bright by sunlit. So, the flashing light may not have enough contrast. Please use this chance as exercise of observation. ISS is closer to NIWAKA these days, and ISS may bright by sunlit. So, two satellites may be pictured. 20130106: Flashing LED plan was made by weather forecast: 10th Jan. 23:57:30 - 23:59:30 UTC New Delhi India (10Hz Green) 11th Jan. 13:52:30 - 13:54:30 UTC San Francisco USA (10Hz Green) (following plan changed by weather problem, see 20130111) 20130104: AMSAT-DL team at Bochum Germany succeeded to generate pictures from 5.84GHz signal. New picture which I received from Bochum.
20130101: We have received many "Happy New Year"s. The most interesting one was sent by Mr. Janos Tolgyesi HG5APZ. 20121223: Magnitude of flashing NIWAKA is 7 to 8. The light is faint. In order to observe, Observation Guide for FITSAT-1 will be helpful (in Japanese). 20121222: The 20m dish of Bochum Germany has received 5.84 GHz signal from NIWAKA. The beam width (3dB) of the dish is only 0.18 deg. 20121219: As the sky is not dark enough by the Moon, we will start the next experiments of flashing NIWAKA around 7th Jan. 2013. 20121217: New flashing plan: 18 Dec. 05:28:30 - 05:32:30 (UTC) Central-South USA (Morse, Green) 20121215: Flashing plan: < stop:bad weather> 18 Dec. 05:46:00 - 05:50:00 (UTC) Brazil (Morse, Red) < stop:bad weather> 19 Dec. 04:47:00 - 04:49:00 (UTC) Equator of South America (Morse, Green) 19 Dec. 18:33:30 - 18:37:30 (UTC) India (Morse, Green) 20 Dec. 16:21:00 - 16:25:00 (UTC) SE Australia (Morse, Red) Schedule may be changed. 20121214: Mr. Tadashi Hayashi of Toyama Science Museum took a movie of flashing NIWAKA (10Hz mode) this morning. Flashing NIWAKA (movie AVI 490MB) Flashing NIWAKA (movie MPG 144MB) 20121212c: Flashing plan: 14 Dec. 22:54:30 - 22:56:30 (UTC) South Europe (10 Hz mode) 15 Dec. 08:11:30 - 08:13:30 (UTC) W.Coast of USA (10 Hz mode) 20121212b: Mr. Tsuyoshi Watanabe took a fine picture of NIWAKA this morning. It flashes 10 Hz mode. "Watanabe picture" The following picture incresed the contrast. 20121212a: We have set the dely command to flash LED over NE of USA. It will start flashing at 6:14:35 (UTC) on 12 Dec. 20121207: As Christmas Eve is full moon, we start flashing LEDs as: 12 Dec. 6:14:30 (UTC) for US (2 minutes with Morse Code) 13 Dec. 22:10:30 (UTC) for Europe (4 minutes with Morse Code) The schedule may be changed. I would like to thank Mr. Simone Corbellini. His web-page will help to fined NIWAKA and also the observation area for LED-light: Web Based Observatory 20121205: We have sent QSL(veri-card) for the reports received since the deployment. I am very sorry the delay. If you could not receive in these 2 weeks, please let me know. The address may be wrong. 20121202: New pictures we have got successfully until now:




20121201: AMSAT-DL team received the 5.84 GHz signal at Bochum Germany. 20121127: The figure shows temperature changes during 450 minutes, almost 5 cycle around the world. The blue, red, green, violet lines show 3 cell battery, single battery, +Z and -Z panels.
20121126: The first experiment of flashing LEDs was observed in Kurashiki Japan and Daejeon Korea. We appreciate Mr. Kazuhisa Mishima of Kurashiki Science Center and Prof. Jun-Ho Oh of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The LEDs were driven in detecting faint light mode.
As the following picture is tracked, the line of LED-light is shorten.
20121117: DF3GJ tries to match the slopes of a sine curve to the audio signal of beacon. It shows a period of 28.5 sec.
20121115: JA1OGZ received the 5.84GHz signal form NIWAKA with 50cm Dish with 2.5t Helix: "JA1OGZ received signal" 20121114: This figure shows 5.84GHz spectrum from NIWAKA (measured on the ground). Though the frequency deviation is +,-,50kHz, the 99% energy spreads over 415kHz. The 90% energy may be less than 300 kHz.
20121113: Old FM-radio (not software radio) will work for 5.84GHz FSK-detector. It has 300kHz band width. Convert the 5.84GHz frequency to FM-radio. FM-radio can receive 76MHz-90MHz in Japan, Other countries may be 90- 108MHz. It depends on the country. Pick up the signal just after FM-discriminator. Change the analog signal to digital by a comparator. 20121112: New data shows NIWAKA is rotating around Z axis with term of 33 sec. This data is sampled aroud the equator at dusk.
20121111: N1JEZ received the 5.84GHz signal form NIWAKA which was sent above Vermont USA. "N1JEZ received signal-1" "N1JEZ received signal-2" 20121110: I thought NIWAKA swings with a period of 40 sec by the signal strength of beacon (North path). This coincides with the period of swing by magnetic force on the ground. But, ...
20121109: We receive the latest TLE from: http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/stations.txt 20121107: JA0CAW shows the 5.84Ghz signal from NIWAKA as: "JA0CAW received signal" 20121106: We will start 5.84GHz transmission experiments of your place. Please advice the best time for the transmission and also your latitude and longitude. In the north hemisphere, south path will be good. As the 5.84GHz patch antenna always faces to the magnetic north, south hemisphere may be difficult. The 5.84GHz signal transmits 128 byte packets. Each packet continues for 12 msec at 115.2kbps. Between packets, there is a 8 msec blank (only carrier, non-modulated) which is the time for reading memory. So the packet cycle repeats with a 20 msec (12msec + 8 msec) period. An FM detector with therefore generate a 50 Hz audio signal (1/20msec). NIWAKA sends 20 pictures at a time in around 2 to 3 minutes. There is a 5 second interval (with no 5.84GHz signal) between pictures due to a heating problem in the final IC. Each picture takes 2-6 seconds to transmit. If a picture is only black space, it takes less than 2 seconds. We ourselves have not yet succeeded in receiving the whole set of 20 pictures. We would appreciate it if you are able to receive these pictures. Data errors have damaged the images as received here, but those damaged images indicate that there are two more pictures of the ISS. Receiving a 5.84GHz signal from a satellite is itself difficult, so we would appreciate a report of any detection or reception of this signal. 20121104: Probably, a part of another satellite F-1.
20121027: New pictures from NIWAKA by 5.84GHz. (rear camera)
(front camera)
20121025: Flashing LED may be good for Christmas Eve. 20121023: Second picture from NIWAKA by 5.84GHz. --> 20121027 NIWAKA was deployed around Hawaii. 20121021: Flashing LED test had not started yet. It will start after down-loading all the 20 pictures at the deployment. 20121020: First picture from NIWAKA by 5.84GHz
20121018: JA1OGZ received 5.8GHz signal. 20121018: JA0CAW received 5.8GHz signal. 20121016: We received temperatures, voltages and currents stored in response to remote commands. These signals (437.445MHz, AX.25 packet 1200bps) are replies to remote commands. They can be received only local area. ... 20121006: We have received many signal and telemetry reports. All reports indicate that FITSAT-1 has started working. 20121005: FITSAT-1 was deployed from ISS at 15:44 on 4th October (UTC).


Project Member



Main Mission

We developed a 5.84GHz 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.



But, these two modules were too big for a cube-sat. So, we have developed a
new module which combines the exciter and the liner amplifier of 2W output.



Using this module, we have developed 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(480x640)
within 6 sec.




Radio


NIWAKA uses the 430MHz band for beacon transmission and remote commands.

The beacon signal is a standard Morse code CW signal.
The signal starts with "HI DE NIWAKA ..." and telemetry data follows.


(telemetry format)





NIWAKA also sends telemetry data stored by 1200bps AX.25 packets.
It is on demand, so not always send the packets.
The format is here.



The following table summarizes the radio frequencies of NIWAKA.





Second Mission


NIWAKA has another experimental mission to test the possibility of optical
communication by satellite. It will actually twinkle as an artificial star.

NIWAKA's high power LEDs will be driven with more than 200W pulses to
produce extremely bright flashes. These, we hope, will be observable by
the unaided eye or with small binoculars.

NIWAKA will write messages in the night sky with Morse code as:


(JAXA movie 120MB)


The LEDs will also be driven in detecting faint light mode.
The light will received by a photo-multiplier equipped on telescope
aligned with the 5.84GHz parabolic antenna.

Duty 30%, 10Hz signal is modulated with also duty 30%, 5kHz signal.
So the average input power will be 220W x 0.3 x 0.3 = 20W.
In order to detect the faint light, a high gain band pass amplifier with
the central frequency of 5kHz may be useful.

While, the Morse code is modulated with duty 15%, 1kHz signal. So, the
signal can directly drive a speaker with AF-amplifier to hear Morse sound.



Overview (Flight Model)



(Bottom View)




Structure


The NIWAKA body is made by cutting a section of 10cm square aluminum
pipe. Both ends of the cut pipe are covered with aluminum plates.
The surface of the body is finished with black anodic coating.



The CubeSat slide rails and side plates are not separate; they are
made as a single unit. The thickness of the square pipe is 3mm, but
the surfaces attached by solar cells are thinned to 1.5mm because of
weight limit. In order to make the 8.5mm square CubeSat rails, 5.5mm
square aluminum sticks are attached to the four corners of the square pipe.



The following picture shows the inside of NIWAKA.



The "L" at upper left is a lever to push the deployment switch.
The rotor at upper center is 437MHz antenna extension mechanism.
The antenna element is stored in a polycarbonate case in spiral.
This mechanism was developed by Mr. T.Otsuka who was an undergraduate
student of Intelligent Mechanical Engineering Department.
There are connectors for flight pin and testing functions at upper right.




Block Diagram






Orbit


The trajectory of the ISS is inclined 51.6 deg from the equator, so NIWAKA will
travel between 51.6 degrees south latitude and 51.6 degrees north latitude.

NIWAKA will carry a mounted neodymium magnet to force it to always point to
magnetic north like a compass. When NIWAKA rises above the horizon, it will
be to the south of the Fukuoka ground station, and both the 5.84GHz antenna
and the LEDs will be aimed accurately enough by the magnet aligning itself
and the satellite with the earth's magnetic field that the Fukuoka ground
station will be within the main beams.

We will perform both 5.84GHz high-speed and optical communication experiments
for about 3 minutes as the satellite travels along the orbit shown as the red
line in the figure.








Naming


The name NIWAKA is from "Hakata Niwaka", which is traditional impromptu comical
talking with this mask. Here, Hakata is old name of Fukuoka city.



Deployment


NIWAKA was launched from the International Space Station
at 15:44 on 4th October 2012 (UTC) as shown here.


(JAXA movie 60MB)

After Deployment from NASA pictures









Ground Station





The 5.840 GHz signal is converted to 440 MHz with LNB which is attached
to the focal point of 1.2m parabola antenna. The parabola is mounted on
an equatorial telescope.





The 440 MHz signal is converted to 10.7 MHz by AR8600 receiver.
The 10.7 MHz signal is detected by 280/500 kHz FM detector.
As we use a simple FSK, FM detector directly generates RS232C
signal for PC.





A jpeg-picture data consists of 128 bytes packets as follow:

(Photo Data)

00 00 7A 00 FF D8 FF E0 ...
01 00 7A 00 09 0A 16 17 ...
...
12 34 56 00 ..... FF D9 ...


Namely, the first 4 bytes and the last 2 bytes do not consist the
photo data. Data size of all packets except the last is 122(=7A hex).
A jpeg-picture data starts with "FFD8" and ends with "FFD9".
The jpeg picture is made by connecting the data part of each packet by
removing the first 4 byte and the last 2 byte.
20 VGA-pictures are sent at a time. Each picture is sent around 4-6 sec.
There is 8 msec interval between packets. and 5 sec interval
between pictures.

Circuit Schematics

All circuits are designed by JA6CYY Mr.Takakazu Tanaka who is the founder of Logical Product Corp.  and now 
he is the chairman of the company.  We appreciate him that he opened his designs to public. 

[1]  5.84GHz to 440MHz converter (LNB)
[2]  5.4GHz local oscillator for converter
[3]  DC-power supply to LNB through coax
[4]  10.7MHz discriminator for 115.2kbps FSK
[5]  Power Supply for FITSAT-1
[6]  5.8GHz system explanations from hardware
[7]  5.8GHz TX unit Block Diagram

Software

I appreciate Timothy HB9FFH who made a telemetry decoder for FITSAT-1. 
It is available from the Carpcomm website:
http://carpcomm.com/satellite/fitsat1
  He made the program based on the column "Radio" of this web-page. I found an error
in the column written in red character. So, please 3 times the value of s22.

One of our student also made the similar software on windows: CW-Analyzer

All programs for 5.84GHz are developed on Linux. A simple shell script controls
receiving data and displaying pictures.  Here is tgz file which we have developed.

References

[1]  Takushi Tanaka, Yoshiyuki Kawamura, Takakazu Tanaka: 
     "Development and Operations of Nano-Satellite FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA)",
     Acta Astronautica, 107, pp.112-129, 2915.
[2]  Takushi Tanaka, Yoshiyuki Kawamura, Takakazu Tanaka: 
    "Development and Operations of CubeSat FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA)",
     UNISEC Space Takumi Journal, Vol.4, No.1, pp.1-25, 2013. (in Japanese)
[3]  Takushi Tanaka, Yoshiyuki Kawamura, Takakazu Tanaka: 
    "Overview and Operations FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA)",
     Proc. of 6th International Conference on Recent Advances in Space Technology,
     pp.887-892, Istanbul Turky, June 2013.
[4] Takakazu Tanaka, Takushi Tanaka: 
    "Nano-satellite FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA) and Communication System",
     RF-world Vol.22, CQ-publisher, pp.77-103, 2013. (in Japanese)
[5] Yoshiyuki Kawamura, Takushi Tanaka: 
    "Emission of the LED light from the space to the ground", 
    AIP Advances 3, 2013.



Current position


Verification Card


FITSAT sends the beacon signal 30 min after the deployment. Please send
the signal report and your postal address to fitsat1@hotmail.co.jp and
also cc to tanaka@fit.ac.jp. You will receive this verification card.

The beacon frequency 437.250MHz of FITSAT-1 conflicts with the satellite
PRISM of Tokyo Univ. Please confirm that the CW starts "HI DE NIWAKA ...".

The orbit is almost same as ISS.




TV News (in English)



(NHK-international-TV 2012.07.23 56MB)




TV News (in Japanese)



(KBC-TV 2012.06.24 8.7MB)




(NHK-TV 2012.06.25 39MB)




(NHK-TV 2012.10.05 83MB)




(RKB-TV 2012.10.05 78MB)




(FBS-TV 2012.10.29 44MB)




(TV-Tokyo 2012.12.06 148MB)


Related TVs



(TNC-TV 2011.09.12 34MB)




(TNC-TV 2012.03.03 47MB)




(NHK-TV 2012.07.14 40MB)


You tube Movie


News papers







_home



_since April 2010