Just a few minutes after our last post on the subject we received viable information that suggests that FUNcube-1 is actually object 2013-066AE
Here is an email that has just been circulated to the AMSAT-BB
Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Object IDs
Hi all, The story so far!
The first object number that was issued for the contents of ISIPOD-1 – ie HinCube, FUNcube-1 and ZAcube was 2013-066B
Some days later, 2 new objects were identified -2013-66AE and 2013-066AF.
Generally we thought that the best fit for FUNcube-1 was object 2013-066AF but more recent evaluations by our expert trackers now shows that FUNcube-1 is most probably 2103-066AE.
They are still only about 100km apart after almost a month in orbit. So we have been correct to hang back a bit before making any claims!
The FUNcube team will monitor results for just a little longer before doing so.
Our “latest tles” page has been updated again to reflect this change!
https://funcubetest2.wordpress.com/working-documents/latest-two-line-elements/
73
Graham
We believe that the best fit for FUNcube-1 is object 2013-066AF and the latest TLEs have just been updated here:
https://funcubetest2.wordpress.com/working-documents/latest-two-line-elements/
Some days ago Mike DK3WN posted a screenshot of his reception of the beacon using this set of keps and the FUNcube-1 team has been using them with great success for some days now.
But before we “claim” the Object, we are going to wait for a few more days – just to be certain!
The Data Warehouse now provides the facility to download Whole Orbit Data as a .csv file. The file is produced at 23:59 every day and contains data for the preceding 24 hours. It contains all the channels shown on the WOD graph, which shows the latest orbit data captured.
As expected, today we have seen two new objects appear on the Kep files from SpaceTrack and Celestrak.
These are 2013-066AE and 2013-066AF – and they appear to be very close to the object number we have been using for FUNcube-1 , 2013-066B.
We will see which of three turn out to be the best match for FUNcube-1 over the forthcoming days.
Nico, PA0DLO, has recently emailed his observations which align with our own understanding of the current situation:
“AMSAT-OSCAR 73, ZACube 1 and HiNCube were launched from the same ISIPOD.
As they initially were close together, the JSpOC decided to release only one TLE set for this cluster under object number 39417 (2013-066B). Now the distances between these satellites are slowly increasing. So the question is – which satellite is object 39417?.
Detailed doppler measurements show that ZACube 1 is now about 25 s early compared to the TLE for object 39417, while OSCAR 73 is about 11 s early. This seems to indicate that object 39417 is actually HiNCube.
Hopefully TLEs for OSCAR 73 and ZACube 1 will be published soon.”
Hi,
We are doing some work on improving the WOD display, please bear with us if the upload server and UI drop out a few times today while we make the changes.
Pressing F5 / Reresh will upload the latest version of the Warehouse if it appears to have stopped.
You don’t have to do anything to the Dashboard, it will back off transmissions until it detects the server again.
Thanks
– Dave
Apologies to everyone who was expecting the transponder to be active during daylight today.
A late change of plan by the team means that we did not send that command but concentrated on testing some other functionality. As a result, the sharp eyed will notice that one of the ANTS Data sensor channels has been commanded “OFF” (this shows as failed” on the Dashboard). It does NOT indicate any problem with the on board systems though.
The spacecraft will continue with its autonomous schedule for the time being.
Thanks!
What are the funny characters in the FM9 slot?
Well the command stations can re-purpose FM9 to either be a “normal” fitter message or to carry the debug data that is displayed at the bottom of the Dashboard. This carries info about various status flags and other parameters.
The format is described here
“in short fitter message 9, when we are running in debug mode starts of with 0xFF that’s how we know its debug, then what follows is just a byte for byte copy of some of the in memory structures from the running MCU, filling up the rest of the fitter message is an MCU program trace (read from right to left) the letter indicates the source file, the number is the line number in that source file. The spaces are where the MCU has finished processing and has gone back to wait for more events.”
Hi,
We can now display 104 minutes of Whole Orbit Data captured within the satellite.
We are working on getting the scaling factors such that all values can be displayed within the same range.
E.g Volts instead on mV, Amps instead on mA. Etc.
Part of the MSE experiment is nicely represent in this graph:
Heating and cooling when the spacecraft is in sunlight as indicated by the Solar Cell (PV1) voltage.
We will be moving on to High Resolution data next and then mechanisms for downloading the data for local analysis.
Enjoy!
73
– Dave, G4DPZ
We have some new TLEs for object 2013-066B
2013-066B 1 39417U 13066B 13330.15401895 .00003238 00000-0 45063-3 0 205 2 39417 97.7994 42.6429 0062763 180.4144 179.7025 14.77120863 712
These still seem to be the best fit but we would appreciate any comments.
As we know there is some discrepancy between the original published frequencies for the spacecraft and those we all experiencing in flight.
It is possible that the transponder input bandpass frequencies may also be varying due with the colder than expected temperatures being experienced. (We did launch in the winter:)) You can track the RF board temp on the telemetry.The RX board temp varies by some 30C over a full orbit and this will be affecting the oscillator frequencies.
We do not yet have final confirmation of the object number so the Doppler shift is probably not yet being precisely counteracted by the various software programmes which will be adding to the confusion.
So just at the moment we cannot give precise guidance on the uplink/downlink formula that users should employ but we are working on it and would appreciate input and observations.
Our analysis of the housekeeping data suggests that all is well on-board FUNcube-1, we are considering switching to continuous transponder mode for a few hours over the weekend to determine the effect that this might have to the on-board temperatures. Presently we are looking at trying this during an early morning pass over the UK on Sunday but we will confirm this plan nearer the time.
Finally we would point you to some good media coverage that the project has had from the BBC in the past 24 hours!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25084547
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/pods
(look for the “Outriders 26 Nov 13: Crypto, crosswords and tiny satellites” edition)
Welcome to the FUNcube Web Site 