On January 4, 2012, the Amateur Radio satellite, ARISSat-1/KEDR ended its 5 month mission as it deorbited through Earth's atmosphere. A report from the AMSAT web site states, "The last full telemetry captured and reported to the ARISSatTLM web site at 06:02:14 UTC on January 4 were received from ground stations as the satellite passed over Japan."
ARISSat-1/KEDR was deployed on August 3, 2011 from the International Space Station (ISS) during EVA# 29 and immediately began its primarily mission as an educational lab allowing teachers and students worldwide to interact with its many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) based activities from their classrooms via amateur radio.
In addition to promoting education, ARISSat-1/KEDR served as a test platform, carrying several new amateur radio configurations into space for the first time. Included in this group of "firsts" was:
+ The AMSAT Software Defined Transponder allowing digitally processed simultaneous transmit and receive communication between ham radio stations.
+ Satellite telemetry was downlinked using forward error correcting BPSK1000 software developed for this mission.
+ new Integrated Housekeeping Unit or IHU.
+ Maximum Power Point Tracking or MPPT power management unit optimizing usage of power generated by the solar cell arrays.
As a STEM based education spacecraft, students were able to study space science from a whole new prespective. First, by tracking the condition of ARISSat-1/KEDR daily as they received its telemetry in real time using amateur radios in a classroom environment. Slow Scan TV (SSTV) images taken by four onboard cameras could also be received through a ham radio and then decoded using free software available from the internet.
Those receiving the images could then upload them to the internet for others to review (see www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/SSTV). In addition, listeners were able to receive special certificates for submitting reception reports, collecting "secret words" announced during special message transmissions, and collecting call signs transmitted in Morse code.
Students were also given the opportunity to submit digitized documentation of science projects and photos to ARISS. These were placed on a memory chip. The chip was attached to ARISSat-1 during final assembly and flown on board during its mission. This project was called "Fly a File" and the submissions can be viewed here.
Further details on ARISSat-1/KEDR's state-of-the-art mission and its accomplishments can be found at the home page.
ARISSat-1/Kedr was built in the United States by volunteer amateur radio operators under the direction of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT) on behalf of ARISS. Export of the satellite to Russia was provided by NASA in December 2010. RSC/Energia installed the Kursk State Technical University Student Experiment and provided an Orlan spacesuit battery to power the spacecraft during eclipse.
The satellite was delivered to the ISS by RSC/Energia on a Russian Progress Cargo Vessel in January 2011. It was subsequently deployed by Russian cosmonauts on August 3, 2011. Through the education support of the ARRL and the efforts of dedicated teachers and students, ARISSat-1/KEDR successfully completed its education mission.
- Space Daily
SAWDOS: I had the opportunity to work Arissat-1 on several occasions from Mossel Bay. SSTV images were downloaded from the satellite and posted on the Arissat web-page. This was really a great experience for many people around the world. It is really sad that it has now come to an end, but I am convinced that there will soon be a Arissat-2. The SAWDOS will keep you posted.
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