PW-Sat2 Last week(s) in space

Satellites & Observations
1

Hello!

Our satellite, PW-Sat2, is about finishing its mission in space! The main goal is to test drag sail device and during 2 years the PW-Sat2 lowered its orbit from 590 km to 380 km and remains operational.

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more: https://sail.pw-sat.pl/

It’s hard to predict the exact decay day, however simulations give us the dates between 2021-02-24 and 2021-03-04.

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source: space-track.org

We’re looking for the very last packets from the satellite!

But obviously we need your help! Be the hunter of the very last packet! Here on SatNOGS or on our website https://radio.pw-sat.pl/.

The beacon interval is 1 minute and it contains all vital telemetry.

Recently we started capturing photos from the on-board cameras every day to observe the drag sail during the decay. Some of the photos from the mission you can find here: https://pw-sat2.github.io :slight_smile: Don’t miss updates on our Twitter, too!

Thanks for your support!

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2

Hi

I’ve been able to schedule 9 passes in the next three days so i hope it helps with the data capture.

Karl.

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Hi @begreen,

I’ve opened an issue in operations to track this request.

EDIT: If any of the station owners want to help with the scheduling please let me know to coordinate.

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@pierros maybe we can check to generate TLE sets to keep up with the decaying orbit.

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Schedule priority for PW-Sat2 on my station.
Regarding Observation 3647060 …
Regarding Observation 3647061 …
Regarding Observation 3658241 …
Regarding Observation 3660180 …
Regarding Observation 3664918 …
Wrong TLE now :
Regarding Observation 3670137 …
Regarding Observation 3674186 …

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6

Thanks for support!

Today we started to have quite a big problems with old TLE. Doppler shift mismatch was so significant that we barely can decode packets.

Our models and Space-Track indicate 2021-02-25 as the final date.

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That explains the frequency bump of what seems to be PW-Sat’'2’s signal as seen on https://network.satnogs.org/observations/3669837/

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The end can be as close as tomorrow!

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Here is a TLE based on two passes from my station:

1 43814U          21053.90000000  .00000000  00000-0  15008-1 0    08
2 43814  97.7608 151.2885 0003876 104.9858 271.5143 16.17397624    07

I hope it works better for those final passes.

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10

It’s official that PW-Sat2 decayed. I feel a little bit empty right now, after two years that I spent on operating the satellite. Time for the next projects! :slight_smile:

Thanks for your amazing support! Short summary: https://pw-sat.pl/en/pw-sat2-decayed-mission-accomplished/

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Congratulations on your mission @begreen ! I hope you get to fly again soon, and SatNOGS could be of service.

ps: it would be nice to point to the 131,000 packets gathered in SatNOGS DB in your article: https://db.satnogs.org/satellite/43814#data

Cheers!

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