Re:Latest on FedSat

http://www.itr.unisa.edu.au/crcss/FedsatLaunch.htm

>2PM Monday 23rd December
>Platform commissioning is continuing well. We had expected that the
correct
attitude would be required for >stable S band communications - but that
doesn't appear to be the case.

-- Translation --
We were a bit too conservative. This is a learning experience for us,
remember.
It also means the hardware and software for error detection and
correction
of telecommands
and telemetry is *really* working well, repeating as necessary.

>The satellite has therefore been left in a mode where the rotation rate
is
negligible, while we test some >attitude initialisation parameters.

-- Translation --
Still a few hiccups with the Attitude Control System. Hey, we only got
it
delivered a few months ago... with coefficients that were estimates,
with no
way of testing them. Nothing that can't be handled, we just have to
tweak
some of the parameters. Fortunately, we designed and installed some
special
ACS-parameter-tweaking-telecommands and software just for this very
eventuality.
BWAH-HA-HA.
"negligible" here means on the order of 0.1 degrees/sec.

>The team have now started initial payload testing and are making good
progress. All the payloads apart from Ka band Comms and the star camera
have
done initial tests and getting the expected results from platform
monitoring
of temperatures, currents etc for their payload.

-- Translation --
Useful data is another matter. But basically, the hardware appears to be
working,
and anything else that might go wrong is fixable by code patch upload to
the
experiment
after launch. The experiments code-patching software got a *really*
thorough
test.
But so far, no anomalies detected, and no useful data was expected at
this
stage.

>In the case of UHF Comms (for the ADAM payload) we turned on the
payload
for 8 minutes at 11:40AM this morning. It is too early yet to have
analysed
any data from the payloads - but in due course we hope to give some
examples
on these pages or links to other pages which will provide payload status
results.

--Translation--
The UHF and Ka-band comms use more juice than the rest of the bird put
together.
If they've gotten this far in only 1 week, things are going radically
better
than
predicted. It means all the other payloads must have been 100% healthy.
After
8 minutes of UHF transmission, they'll need a dozen "catch-up" orbits
doing
not
very much, just to recharge the batteries - so you do this type of thing
last.
FedSat has the same number of payloads as most satellites 10x its size,
but
it
has only the power generation capacity of a 58kg Microsatellite.