The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) technology demonstrator launched on April 23, 2024.
It uses #composite materials in its novel, lightweight booms that deploy from a #CubeSat. Data obtained from ACS3 will guide the design of future larger-scale composite solar sail systems that could be used for space weather early warning satellites, near-Earth #asteroid reconnaissance missions, or communications relays.
Last week some of us headed out to the small satellite conference in Utah, and some of us built ground stations, and a good time was had by all! #smallsat#cubesat#astropi#space
Congrats to Team mHACKeroni, who jumped out in the final moments to seal the win!
There was a 3-way tie for second place, with Poland Can Into Space breaking the tie by submitting first, jmPFS:[RCX] next (and thus third), and SpaceBitsRUs next. KRAUTSAT was very close behind, and it was anyone's race until the end.
Later today there will be a special SSTV image sent from the ISS over the north eastern USA starting around 20:05 UTC by @ARISS_Intl
If you have a Raspberry Pi (not a Zero, any other model) an RTL-SDR radio dongle, and an outside antenna (or just one near a window) you can receive it!
The easiest way is to use the ARISS Radio Pi image. Here are the instructions:
Here’s instructions to receive the special #ISS#SSTV event today at around 4pm Eastern over the North Eastern US:
Select the SSTV Decode with QSSTV option then select Choose Another Frequency then type 437800 and then wait for the signal. As the ISS comes toward you, you might need to set the frequency higher to 437805 or lower if heading away from you to 437795
QSSTV should automatically select the SSTV mode as Robot 36 or Robot 72
SpaceX - CRS2 SpX-28
F9 B1077.5 + C from KSC LC-39A
Pri: Sat Jun 03 at ~16:34 UTC.
Bk1: Sun Jun 04 at ~16:12 UTC.
Bk2: Mon Jun 05 at ~15:46 UTC.
Bk3: Tue Jun 06 at ~15:24 UTC.
Bk4: Wed Jun 07 at ~15:01 UTC.
Bk5: Thu Jun 08 at ~14:38 UTC.
Bk6: Fri Jun 09 at ~14:13 UTC.
Not sure if it's been mentioned, but one nifty #cubesat going up on this #ISS#CRS launch is the Aerospace #Moonlighter "hacking sandbox in space", to act as the (very) remote arena for the Hack-A-Sat 4 competition during #DEFCON 31 over Aug 11 - 13.