From: Alan and Carmel Brain <aebrain@w...>
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2002 00:18:08 +1100
Subject: Re:Latest on FedSat
http://www.itr.unisa.edu.au/crcss/FedsatLaunch.htm > 2PM Monday 23rd December -- 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 -- 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 -- 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 --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.