ISS Deployment 14-June-2021, RamSat & SOAR

Good day!

RamSat appears to be healthy with a 9k6 beacon on 436.300 after deployment from the ISS today, if you would like to create a database object for it.

I posted a Tweet showing the decodes from this morning’s pass:

Best regards!

-Scott, K4KDR

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Do you know if other satellites were also deployed from ISS today?

Added in DB with the temporary ID 99700

Yes, -2- were deployed from NanoRacks this morning. The second object is SOAR, but other than the fact that it has a 430/440 MHz radio, I have not been able to locate any information about SOAR’s downlink.

Here is the RamSat homepage with images of today’s ISS deployment:

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I’ve scheduled some observations for RamSat in Network… let’s see if we can also find any info for SOAR.

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From here it looks like it is at 400-402MHz.

By the way we have several decoded frames in Network, the next step is to generate some TLE sets until we have any news from spacetrack.

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Do you have any link or documents on the telemetry description at hand, Scott?

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Hello!

I asked & they just sent me the following. While some of the units are obvious, I’ve asked them to verify the unit for each value just to be sure. But as a starting point, please see the following:


DateTime = 2021-06-14T15:24:52.82Z

BatteryVoltage = 826

Battery Current Mag = 113

Battery Is Charging = 1

Voltage Feeding BCR1 X = 1056

Current BCR1 -X = 1

Current BCR1 +X = 240

Voltage Feeding BCR2 Y = 1018

Current BCR1 -Y = 14

Current BCR1 +Y = 85

Voltage Feeding BCR3 Z = 490

Current BCR1 -Z = 7

BCR Output Voltage = 826

BCR Output Current = 219

Battery Bus Voltage = 827

Battery Bus Current = 3

3.3V Bus Voltage = 332

3.3V Bus Current = 35

5V Bus Voltage = 504

5V Bus Current = 64

Temperature EPS = 98

Temperature Battery Motherboard = 110

Temperature Battery Daughterboard = 118

Temperature + X Array = 58

Temperature - X Array = 122

Temperature + Y Array = 58

Temperature - Y Array = 33

SunSensor + Xa = 177

SunSensor + Xb = 33

SunSensor - Xa = 24

SunSensor - Xb = 18

SunSensor + Ya = 71

SunSensor + Yb = 110

SunSensor - Ya = 16

SunSensor - Yb = 26

iMTQ Cal Mag X = -22883

iMTQ Cal Mag Y = 15983

iMTQ Cal Mag Z = -17813

Antenna Deployment Status = 0000

Longitude = 0

Latitude = 0

Elevation = 0


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Hello Fredy, David Andrews N1ESK here. I’m with the recently deployed RamSat satellite team based in Oak Ridge, TN. We’re coming up for air after yesterday’s flurry of activity with the deployment and activation of RamSat from the ISS. Can you steer me to the best contact person (might be you??) to update and customize the RamSat page? We’ve like to add an image, our website link, a brief description, and to start building the dashboard.

Many thanks,

David Andrews, N1ESK

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Two sets of possible SOAR packets observed off the omni around 401.7 / 401.8 on the 1303 UTC pass this morning (15-June-2021) over the Eastern U.S. Tried to decode on I/Q replay, but no luck with conventional soundmodem options.

If these signals repeat on future passes, perhaps can zoom in with higher decimation to increase SNR and have better luck.

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Hi @N1ESK and welcome!

Currently the best way for integrating with SatNOGS and adding info in the satellite page is to follow this guide and especially the “2.2 Add a new Mission” paragraph.

Especially for the dashboard and the kaitai struct for the decoder @DL4PD could help you to build them. Have in mind that for giving you and other members of your team access and permissions to create/edit a dashboard you will need to login at least once in dashboard.satnogs.org.

Feel free also to join our chat platform for more direct interaction, more info at https://wiki.satnogs.org/Get_In_Touch.

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@K4KDR thanks! let us know if you spot SOAR in this frequency so we can add it in DB and try also to watch it and identify it when there are any TLE sets.

Thanks Fredy, our team will take a look and see if we can make some progress here. SatNOGS is a fantastic resource for us on so many levels. As our primary mission is to inspire and educate middle schoolers, SatNOGS will become a frequent site visited by us and our students in the future.

David

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RamSat telemetry units:
All voltage values are V * 100
All current values are mA
“Battery Is Charging” is a binary field (1=charging, 0=discharging)
All temperatures are degrees C * 10
Sun sensor values are unitless ADC outputs, range 0-1000. Values will be calibrated during the mission once more data are gathered in operational setting. Will be proportional to cosine beam-sensor angle.
iMTQ are calibrated magnetic field values in body frame X, Y, Z directions, in mT
Antenna deployment status of 0000 means antennas are all deployed and in operational configuration.
Longitude, latitude, and elevation will be determined by onboard SGP4 calculations once a TLE is uplinked. For now all zero.
Quantities labeled (+/-) X, Y, Z are associated with faces of the body.
BCR = battery charge regulator. BCR1 is associated with the +X and -X solar panels. BCR2 is associated with the +Y and -Y solar panels. BCR3 is associated with the -Z solar panel. The +Z face has an opening for two cameras, and no solar panel.
In the list above, the BCR numbering for currents on Y and Z panels is not correct: it should use BCR2 for the Y components, and BCR3 for the Z component. The voltage components are labeled correctly for all BCRs.

Thanks for all the help in allowing us to monitor RamSat health immediately after deployment!

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Correction: magnetic field values are nT, not mT.

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RamSat now has a NORAD ID: 48851. From 18SPCS: “It’s not in the catalog on Space-Track yet, but you can get the TLEs using the ELSET SEARCH under the Space-Track HOME menu.”
The first TLE is:

1 48851U 98067SM  21166.68314591  .00013697  00000-0  25088-3 0  9991
2 48851  51.6442 350.1625 0004741 133.5149 324.0078 15.49612427   278
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Thanks so much for the telemetry definitions!

Also very much appreciate the TLE info. So that puts RamSat 1:15 ahead of the ISS as I’m typing this… that will sure make antenna pointing & doppler correction more accurate.

Appreciate all the info!

-Scott, K4KDR

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@pethornton thanks for the heads-up, I’ve changed the TLE we follow in DB for RamSat to 48851, however 48850 is also close.

I guess in the next days with more separation and also with the TLE sets assigned to objects from 18SPCS (still at “To Be Assigned” status), we will be able to identify which of these two objects is RamSat.

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Space-Tracker.org SatCat is now showing 48851 as RamSat, and 48850 as SOAR. There have been 4 TLEs for RamSat, with the most recent as:

1 48851U 98067SM  21167.58841211  .00012999  00000-0  23832-3 0  9994
2 48851  51.6441 345.6797 0004898 137.0218 333.9998 15.49636458   411
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It is very interesting how SOAR is identified while both TLE sets are so close. By missing any public evidence of this identification and by having seen in the past misidentifications in space-track.org I think we should wait a couple of days to be sure. Until then, we keep following TLE sets of OBJECT SM for RamSat.

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