Thanks to the very good work of Richard Limebear, G3RWL, the first edition of the “FUNcube Handbook” is now available here:
Funcube Handbook EN_v1
We expect that it will be updated after launch but it provides an initial introduction to the project overall and FUNcube-1 in particular.
It is presently being translated into French and we would be delighted to receive offers of translation into other languages.
The latest news about the launch date and time has just been confirmed by Kosmotras
Launch Date of DubaiSat-2 cluster mission
| The launch date of RS-20B rocket (Dnepr) with a group of satellites (DubaiSat-2 cluster mission) from Dombarovsky missile area (Yasny Launch Base) has been established for November 21, 2013 at 07:10:11 UTC. The back-up launch date is November 22, 2013 at07:10:11 UTC. |
We will shortly be providing prelaunch TLEs and, in about 7/10 days, the Dashboard software that is needed to demodulate and display the telemetry information. More information about the Dashboard can found here https://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/
The Kosmotras website reported earlier this week that the two primary payloads for the upcoming Dnepr launch have now also arrived at the Yasny base and are undergoing final testing.
With Unisat-5 scheduled to arrive during this coming week, all the players for the launch are coming together nicely.
In addition to the “stand alone” FUNcube-1 1U CubeSat, we have also be working with the UK Space Agency and have supplied a set of boards to create a FUNcube sub-system for the 3U UKube-1 spacecraft.
This will provide very similar functionality to that of FUNcube-1 and the ground system, the receivers, the Dashboard and the Data Warehouse are all designed to be compatible with both spacecraft.
The BBC have just reported that UKube-1 flight model will shortly be starting its journey to Russia ahead of a February launch.
Artist’s impression of UKube-1. Photo courtesy of UK Space Agency
For full details see this report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-24685840
‘Our Man’ at the Launch site reports that FUNCube-1 has now had its Apply Before Flight Plug attached, screwed and glued on. Also its two POD partners, ZAcube from S Africa and HiNCube from Norway are similarly ready for flight. So the POD has now been finally sealed, and is ready to be mounted on the rocket. Our picture shows the POD check out team, and ‘our man’ is Gerard Aalbers on the left of the picture. Gerard will be leaving Yasny later today to return to Delft.
Its also being reported that the weather in Yasny is getting colder, and there has been snow, as our picture illustrates. Gerard will have a 200 km road journey, before the second leg of his journey home by air. Have a safe journey, Gerard!
Looking forward, we are hoping that we will be able to start distributing the software (aka the Dashboard) necessary to decode the FUNCube-1 signals in approximately two weeks. At the same time we will make test audio, etc files available. We are still expecting a late November launch date, we will publish the exact date/time here as soon as we can, so please check back frequently, or enter your email address below, to be notified of new posts on this web site as the occur.
The final battery charge before launch
More news from the integration clean room has just been received from Gerard:
Today was the second full day of the checkout campaign at Yasny and today’s theme was charging. Work on the ISIPOD with FUNcube-1 started with ZAcube doing a final charging session followed by a quick health check, which the satellite passed.
At 12:30 local time it was finally time to remove the ABF plug from FUNcube-1 after the other satellites had been protected. This and the insertion of the umbilical went very smoothly. After connecting the umbilical to the charger and powering the charger, the battery low light came on.
After having a late lunch I decided to start charging the FUNcube-1 battery at 15:00 local time. I then realized that I had yet to connect the satellite battery switch on the charger unit and that the battery low light being on was the normal state when no battery is connected to the charger. When I then connected the battery the battery low level subsequently went off.
I pressed the “charge” button, but as expected, exactly nothing happened 🙂 The battery was still at the correct pre-launch charge level and no significant self discharge had occurred since the spacecraft was placed in its ISIPOD in Delft early in September.
The official sequence of events was:
15:00 local time
* Re-connected FUNcube-1 charger to FUNcube-1 satellite (umbilical was already attached)
* Battery low level indicator was ON
* Connected satellite battery on the charger front panel
* Battery low level indicator switched OFF
15:18 local time
* Pressed charge button, no change in led status was observed
15:19 local time
* Disconnected satellite battery
* Battery low level indicator switched back ON
Insertion and glueing of the ABF is scheduled for tomorrow morning before we leave the launch base. After that we will leave the launch base at approximately 1:30 PM local time for our journey back to The Netherlands, where we are scheduled to land at 18:00 Dutch time on Thursday.
Greetings from Yasny!
Gerard
Our launch service provider is maintaining a blog here http://blog.isilaunch.com/
It gives a great insight about the arrangements for the pre-launch operations and the progress being made.
Gerard has just reported that he has safely arrived at the integration facility to perform the final checks and flight readiness preparations on the FUNcube-1 spacecraft. He has emailed to say that:
“I am happy to report that after two days of travelling which included 3 separate flights, a night in a hotel in Moscow, and a 2.5 hour car-ride over some of the bumpiest roads I’ve travelled on, I have safely arrived in the hotel of the launch base in Yasny.
We have just had a delicious dinner and are planning to spend the night relaxing before work can start in earnest tomorrow morning. Our supervisors will make sure we don´t get into any accidents in the workplace, just so we can be safe and to make sure that we wont have to file any reports.
We will start at 9 AM local time with a safety briefing and having our headshots taken so we can get badges to access the cleanroom.
Internet access seems decent and stable so I hope to be able to provide regular updates during the next few days.”
The Kosmatras website has also been updated today and provides details of the arrival of some of FUNcube-1’s fellow travellers http://www.kosmotras.ru/en/news/133/
A few small CubeSats in a large case being loaded into an special cargo hold
The FUNcube-1 CubeSat is now en-route to the Yasny launch site. It was flown on a special flight from Rotterdam yesterday and has been cleared through Russian customs this morning. It should arrive on another flight at Orsk later today and then will have to survive a road trip of some hours before arriving at the launch integration facility at Yasny.
The only work that still needs to be completed before launch is a final battery charge up to 7.68 volts, this is the best storage voltage this type of battery, and the final ABF “Add Before Flight” plus needs to be installed and glued in place.
The vital ABF plug
This work will be done on site by Gerard Aalbers who has been a member of the FUNcube team from the beginning of the project.
Wouter PA3WEG has created a video showing the process for inserting three 1U CubeSats into their ISIPOD and this is now available here:
Welcome to the FUNcube Web Site 