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AAUSAT 3 Home Old

... counting down for launch :-)

(:includeurl http://space.aau.dk/aausat3/countdown/index.html height=50:)

You have reached the official homepage for AAUSAT3 our third cubesat.

WELCOME :-)

We are waiting for launch on PSLV-20 from ISRO's launch site at Chennai in India. On this front page you can follow the launch.
SCHEDULE FOR MONDAY 25. FEB 2013

NOTE LAUNCH HAS BEEN MOVED TO 13:31

At launch day this page will be a live feed

from 12:00 danish/CET time

  • Row call 9:00 - AAUSAT3 Mission Control Center will be manned
    • Last tests and dress rehersals
  • Launch 13:31 (danish and CET time) Come and join us at satlab
    • Fredrik Bajervsvej 7C 9220 Aalborg O - satlab
  • AAUSAT3 will deploy antennas some 90 minutes after launch

START OF OPERATIONS

  • First pass 16:44 Very low pass - so goal is just to receive beacons
  • Next passes 18:23 and 21:42 - two good passes where we will go for communication
  • First Day ends 21:52

Before first pass we will wait and see if radio amateurs around the world will hear AAUSAT3.


  • Launch is now scheduled for 25th February 13:31 CET / danish time
  • Scroll down for news - newest at top - oldest at bottom ...
  • And follow us on twitter as @aausat3
  • For radio amateurs wanting to help us see our HAM page for information

Hope to see you all in Satlab at Fredrik Bajers Vej 7C Aalborg on Monday.

http://space.aau.dk/aausat3

We will update with oneliners and pictures during launch


25. Feb 06:41 Launch has been shifted to 13:31

Last update from India is a slight 5 min delay

24. February Ready for launch

The last day before launch is over. We have been testing and testing and testing an everything seems to work.

Looking forward to see you all tomorrow :-)

23. February Dress Rehersal


Mission Control Center

Radio Room


It always a good idea to do some training. Today(Saturday) we are running a few passes acc. to our LEOP procedure.

21. February AAUSAT 3 - a complicated satellite

We have just found some metrics for AAUSAT3

  • 7 microcontrollers (1 BF537 DSP, 1 Arm7, 5 AT90CAN128)
  • 2 operating systems (freertos and Linux(BF537))
  • 125.000 lines of C code all written in house by students
  • 500 kbit/sec CANBUS serving all subsystems
  • Our own developed fieldbus CSP(cubesat space protocol) (open source) that is also used for sat to ground communication.
  • Our own designed and constructed alu(7075) frame made in one piece from a solid block.

AAUSAT3 is a pure AAU satellite. All is designed and constructed by AAU students. No foreign nor bought subsystems.


PSLV C20 on launch site

21. February Our rocket is ready

Our PSLV C20 rocket is now ready on the launch site.

Everything is ok according to our launch provider.

So we are testing our MCC (mission control center) to be ready for Monday.

A dress rehersal is scheduled for Saturday.

More info can be found at:



AAUSAT3 MCC

21. February A sneak view to our MCC

Our MCC (mission control center) is now ready for launch

So we are just waiting for the launch.


20. February Image Gallery and more detailed description

We are continuously building an image gallery of AAUSAT3, components etc

See here for more details about AAUSAT3.

See LaunchInformation page for ISRO's graphical tour up in space.


18. February First pass rehearsal

This evening, we tested our procedures for the first AAUSAT3 passes, on our qualification model (QM). After some thrilling moments, the antennas on QM unfolded correctly, and began transmitting beacons as expected.

Some simulated 10 min passes gave us important knowledge about how to handle different situations happening during the first critical minutes of contact to AAUSAT3.

15. February Radio Amateurs listening

We are very happy that people want to listen to our satellite :-) If you want to help us please email jdn@space.aau.dk

We will put you on our HAM people list

14. February 2013


AAUSAT3 roof antenna

Our new antenna has been tested this evening and it works fine :-)

It is operated from our Blue Box. We did track AAUSAT-II in a +60 degrees pass.

13. February 2013

SFL (Freddy) has just confirmed that charging of batteries has taken place in India at the launch site.

  • 7.63V at start (So we have gone from 8.2V to 7.63V since September 2012 - that is ok)
  • 8.19V after charging

Charging started at 1A current and ended with 0A :-)

So now we are more than ready

9. February 2013

It seems that ...

LAUNCH IS SCHEDULED FOR 25th FEBRUARY 2013

We will have live videostream from Chennai - India

  • lift off 13:22 CET(danish time) by a PSLV rocket
  • first weak pass from AAUSAT3 around 1630
  • hopefully good passes at 1800 and 1930

Then next passes will be 12 hours later

In addition to that we hope that we will get our groundstation at Thule(Greenland) up and running

9. February - waiting


AAUSAT-II received by Omar Frits Eriksson

Our previous cubesat AAUSAT-II is still alive as you can see here:

Five years in space and still working :-)

We do have about 8.4V at the batteries and beacons are 20 dB above noise level :-)

8. February 2013

Follow us at twitter @aausat3

1. February 2013

AAUSAT3 is now in Chennai and awaits launch

19. January 2013

AAUSAT3 is today flying from Canada to India. It is a very low orbit (10km) and might be due to the fact it is onboard an airplane.

So launch are approaching.

21. Nov 2012 - Blue Box Ground Station

We are working hard on our Blue Box ground station. It is a small - with USB interface - radio for receiving communication from AAUSAT3. It is based on the same ADF radio chip as AAUSAT3.

If any body are interested in helping us we would be happy to hear from you. We have a limited number of Blue Boxes for you out there. We cant promise everybody to borrow one but let's us know and we will take a look on it. Our major preference is HAM people far away from Aalborg so we can extend the contact to AAUSAT3 - but any case please contact us.

More info here.


21. Nov 2012 - Launch delayed until ultimo January

Launch has been delayed to late January 2013 due to problems with the main payload.


26. Sep 2012 - AAUSAT3 has passed all tests


AAUSAT3 on shaking table(click for movie)

AAUSAT3 has in week 39 passed all tests at SFL in Toronto and is now ready for launch.

The picture shows one of the two vibration setup at Toronto. The test shall ensure mechanical stability and test robustness of antenna deployment system.

Tests are covers up to 10G and frequencies below 1 kHz.



Sep 2012 - At SFL Labs, Toronto

26. Sep 2012 - Tests are now completed

Last news from SFL from Troels and Jesper:

AAUSAT3 is now approved for launch :-) All tests went well and AAUSAT3 is integrated in our own POD.

So we are now waiting on launch.

25. Sep 2012 - At SFL Laboratory

Things are progressing as expected. Tests has up until now been successful on FM as well as QM. We hope that next news will be that FM is integrated in the POD(deployment unit)

24. Sep 2012 - Arrived Toronto SFL

Jesper and Troels on way to first working and testing day at SFL

23. Sep 2012 - Aalborg Airport inspecting cubesat box - PASSED :-)

  1. : Q: What's that ?
  2. : A: It's two satellites on way to launch
  3. : Reaction from security: oh ... well okay :-)

Conclusion: we are traveling to much with satellites :-)


(C) AAUSAT3 team - 2012