Amateur satellite doing well in orbit
January 24, 2002 Posted: 1:48 PM EST (1848 GMT)
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (AP) -- Once
every 100 minutes, a bargain-basement
satellite loops around the Earth,
sending and receiving digital messages
over antennas made from a metal tape
measure.
A sailor on a solo crossing of the Atlantic
bounces signals off the satellite to stay in
touch with his family. New Zealanders on
a cross-country hike use it to
communicate with friends back home.
And any ham radio user who has the
proper transmitting equipment and is
within 2,000 miles (3200 kilometers) of
the 25-pound (11-kilogram) satellite can
use it to send single-line text messages.
After four months in space, the U.S. Naval
Academy's "bird" is proving surprisingly
resilient, to the delight of the midshipmen
and faculty advisers who designed and built it.
The Prototype Communications Satellite, or PCSat, was the 44th amateur satellite
put in orbit. It is one of more than a dozen built by university students around the
world.
At a cost of just $50,000 -- including plane tickets to the Alaska launch site -- it
was constructed using off-the-shelf parts not designed to withstand the rigors of
space. Its lifespan was expected to be only a few months.
Six students put together the satellite last year with the help of a grant from Boeing
Co. The Pentagon approved the project and put it on a launch list.
A tape measure from Home Depot provided the antenna. Power comes from two
dozen AA batteries that are recharged by the solar panels. Parts built to withstand
the effects of radiation from the sun would have been too expensive, so the
students went with regular circuit boards.
September 29 was launch day, and there were anxious moments at the academy as
the cube-shaped satellite hitched a ride aboard an Athena rocket that was blasted
into space from Kodiak, Alaska. It took nine hours before PCSat made its first pass
over Annapolis and the midshipmen and faculty advisers could see for themselves
that their satellite was working.
"I was thrilled. It was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life," said Steven
Lawrence, who helped build the satellite before he graduated in May.
In the following weeks, people in remote areas began to use the satellite as word of
it spread among ham radio operators.
Except for the failure of one of the six solar panels, damaged when the satellite
separated from the rocket, there have been no problems.
Just how long PCSat will work depends on how much solar radiation bombards the
satellite and how long the batteries, solar panels and thousands of transistors
withstand the sun's damaging effects.
"If we get lucky with radiation, it could last three years," said Darrell Boden, a
professor in the aerospace engineering department.
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