UMKA-1 telescope satellite mission

Good afternoon, dear @jupitersaturn09.
Please accept my apologies for the long wait for an answer.
In the very near future, we intend to publish a report on the status of the mission and plans for the near future.
I will add that serious difficulties have arisen in the operation of the S-band transmitter.
Thank you for your interest in our mission.

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Can you elaborate a bit more on that? Is there any-way we can help?

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Hi @ra3ppy!

Thank you so much for replying! I really appreciate it :smile:

Oh no! I’m very sad to hear that there are issues! I hope UmKa-1 will recover soon :grin:

Looking forward to reading the report!

73 de Sasha VE3SVF!

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Hello, dear @pierros .
We interact directly with the developer of the S band transmitter. There are probably few people better than him who can understand the problem at the moment. But the help of the amateur radio community will, of course, be needed a little later. When we try to start the S band transmitter again. We will inform you about this later.

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Thanks for support! :handshake:

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Status report on the UmKA-1 (RS40S) orbiting space telescope mission.

Since its launch from the Vostochny Cosmodrome on June 27, 2023 and receipt of the first telemetry, the School Orbital Telescope UmKA-1 (RS40S) was taken for tracking by the school ground control station R3DDF.

Having established communication with the satellite in the first days after its launch into orbit and having made sure that the satellite responded to commands from the ground control station, it was decided to keep monitoring until the temperature of the spacecraft stabilized. At the same time, the software and hardware for working with the spacecraft orbiting the Earth were being mastered.


Antenna complex of the school ground control and control station

July 2 - interference on the main and backup frequencies from ground-based RPS was assessed. It was decided to keep 437.625 MHz as the main frequency of the downlink.

July 4 - work with our satellite began. The format was changed from FSK 2400 to the planned format GMSK USP 2400.

July 12 - performance and general condition of the battery was evaluated.

July 16 - started working with S-band transmitter. During the week there were made several test switches, involved four amateur radio ground stations located in the European part, which monitored the frequency of the S-band transmitter. Problems were identified in the operation of the high-speed S-band transmitter. The monitoring stations, including the control and monitoring station located in school 29 in Podolsk, did not observe the transmission at the specified frequency. At the same time, the payload consumption remained within the design limits.

Since July 18 - in order to determine the cause, began interaction with the manufacturer of high-speed transmitter S-band.

The team of the ground control and monitoring station took measures to restore the operation of the high-speed S-band transmitter, including reducing the speed to 250 kbit. The measures taken did not lead to the desired result.

July 24 - observation of the descent of MKA “UmKA-1 (RS40S)” by the control station UB1QBJ was established.


Schedule of altitude reduction from July 24 to September 16, 2023 MKA “UmKA-1 (RS40S)”

Operation in different formats of telemetry transmission was checked. USP GMSK 9600 was chosen as the main format.

August 1 - the main work with stabilization and pointing of the orbiting telescope began.

August 3 - Successfully received a photograph from the technical camera. It was decided to use the main frequency - 437.625 MHz - to transmit useful data under conditions of unstable operation of the high-speed S-band transmitter to the ground station. A number of experiments on useful data transmission were performed, including the change of format to USP GMSK 19200, preliminary receiving approval from IARU.


Photos from the technical camera of the MC “UmKA-1 (RS40S)”

August 4 - test frames from the telescope were received. As a result of the received images, there was an assumption of incorrect operation of the telescope.

August 12 - subsequent fragments of images received confirmed the fears. From that moment, the priority task of the team was to find out the cause of the problem and search for its solution.


A full-size test frame of the UmKA-1 (RS40S) telescope camera from Earth, before launch (above) and the resulting fragments of images from orbit in August 2023.

August 19 - at the ground control and monitoring station, the S-band irradiators were replaced and their operability was checked on other spacecraft broadcasting in the S-band section.

Until September, work continued on mastering the stabilization and guidance of the orbital telescope UmKA-1 (RS40S). In the process of active work with the spacecraft, a number of other minor problems with the orientation system were identified, which were promptly eliminated.

Since September, the team of the ground control station continues to work with the orbiting telescope.

The program for the transmission of images from the technical camera is being prepared.

SSTV broadcasts are planned. Prepared a diploma program for radio amateurs. QSL program is active.

In October, it is planned to shoot and transmit new images after corrections to the work of the optical telescope.

New attempts will be made to turn on the high-speed S-band transmitter.

As of September 24, 2023, the main systems of the UmKA-1 (RS40S) MCA platform are functioning normally.

The team of the ground control and monitoring station continues to work on restoring the S-band transmitter and optical telescope functionality.

Despite the difficulties encountered, the team has learned very valuable and useful experience that will be taken into account in planning future missions.

The main frequency of the downlink is 437.625 MHz (in use)

Format - USP GMSK 9K6

Backup frequency - 435.825 MHz (not active)

High-speed transmitter frequency - 2402 MHz (not active)

You can read the report in Russian by clicking here.
In the near future, the report will also be published on the mission’s website.

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