FrontierSat: A plasma-imaging cubesat that loves SatNOGS

Satellites & Observations
1

I’m from CalgaryToSpace, the team at the University of Calgary (in Canada) that made FrontierSat, a 3U research cubesat made primarily by undergraduate students.

FrontierSat launched on the CAS500-2 Falcon 9 mission on May 3, 2026, and has been beaconing on SatNOGS since. SatNOGS has been beyond valuable as we’ve scrambled to work out the kinks of our ground station. We’ve successfully uplinked telecommands!

We’re seeking help: We’re looking for operators with working ground stations to schedule more UHF observations of our satellite! Knowing the observation windows in advance allows our Misson Operations team to schedule data transfers over known-working stations. Please DM me if you’re interested in helping this student-lead research project!

Want to learn more about FrontierSat (CTS-SAT-1)?

SatNOGS Links:

6 Likes
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Thanks for this update and outreach,

Are you looking for RX ground stations or RX/TX ?

If only RX you can use all stations that are managed by me SatNOGS Network - User: PE0SAT

All the best,

Jan | PE0SAT

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Looking for RX-only! Thanks!

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Be my guest, love to help the mission.

Jan | PE0SAT

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To better support the mission I created a gr-satellites Yaml file and with csp telemetry decoding I got the following frame:

Hello from CalgaryToSpace FrontierSat

-> Packet from 9k6 FSK downlink
Container: 
    header = Container: 
        priority = 3
        source = 1
        destination = 10
        destination_port = 10
        source_port = 10
        reserved = 0
        fragmentation = False
        hmac = False
        xtea = False
        rdp = False
        crc = False
    payload = b'\x01CTS1\x01\x00\x11\x1ef\x03\x1c\x04a\x03:\xcd:T\x9e\x01\x00\x00\x05\x01j\x00-\x00\xdf\n\x00\x00\x01\x02\xc1.\x0f\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xff\x7f\xb4\x03\xc6\x0e\x00\x00\xa3\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xaa\x05\x00\x00\x03\x02\x01\x02\x00\x00\x00\x02Hello from CalgaryToSpace FrontierSat\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00END\x00\xfd\xb5\xd1P' (total 134)

name: FRONTIERSAT
norad: 69015
data:
  &tlm unknown Telemetry:
    unknown
  &csp csp Telemetry:
    telemetry: csp
transmitters:
  9k6 FSK downlink:
    frequency: 436.150e+6
    modulation: FSK
    baudrate: 9600
    deviation: 2400
    framing: AX100 ASM+Golay
    data:
    - *tlm

Jan | PE0SAT

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Hello,

I have scheduled some, and i will continue to schedule observations with the maximum chances of receiving data :slight_smile: (Since i m using a Yagi 3 elm at 45 degrees of elevations W-N, the obs needs to be in the right axe).

If you see that i m missing some, feel free to schedule FrontierSat obs on 4151

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Thanks Jan, this is probably the time/motivation to get me over the hump to play with gr-satellites…

c

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DM done!

image
image860×641 140 KB

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Thanks for everyone’s help! I think we’re all set for the next few days!

If anyone’s running an autoscheduler on their working SatNOGS station, adding FrontierSat to the priority list would be much appreciated for the future!

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This entry should work

69016 0.9 JqdpyL9Ft5jMvQ8VXy57wx # FRONTIERSAT

My auto-scheduler function:

    schedule_single_station.py -s "${ID}" \
    -d "${DURATION}" -P "${HOME}"/satnogs/etc/priority_"${ID}".txt \
    -r 5 -l "${LOGLEVEL}"

Jan | PE0SAT

2 Likes