[Ground-station] Please vote - Ambasat sensor

[John Ackermann. N8UR]

In this context, what does "Ultra Stable" mean?  There are a bunch of interesting challenges with crystals in space because of the launch shock, the huge temperature swings, and the thermal insulating properties of vacuum.

I know people who know about these things and would be glad to help if we wanted to do this, but a spec is the first requirement.  It would need to include (at a minimum) nominal frequency,  short-term stability, phase noise, drift/aging, temperature response, and absolute frequency accuracy, along with mechanical things like shock rating, physical dimensions, and power budget.  There would have to be consideration of thermal management as well, given the likely need for an oven.

(Note: I've never done spacecraft design, but I've picked up on these issues from conversations with those who have worked on space-borne USOs.)

73,
John

On Sep 27, 2019, 1:32 AM, at 1:32 AM, Michelle Thompson via Ground-Station <ground-station at lists.openresearch.institute> wrote:
>We can design our own sensor. There's a blurb about it on the site and
>specs for the footprint and interface.
>
>If someone commits to build and test, I can work with Ambasat to see if
>we
>can get it on there.
>
>On Thu, Sep 26, 2019, 22:27 Douglas Quagliana <dquagliana at gmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>> Rather than a sensor, could we get an ulta stable oscillator (USO)
>for
>> some frequency in an amateur satellite band? We would just need the
>USO, a
>> small amplifier and an antenna. Even an inefficient antenna. Even if
>we’re
>> only radiating a few milliwatts. There’s still a lot of good science
>we can
>> do from an unmodulated carrier with Doppler.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Douglas
>>
>> On Sep 26, 2019, at 6:24 PM, Michelle Thompson via Ground-Station <
>> ground-station at lists.openresearch.institute> wrote:
>>
>> There are solar panels.
>>
>> From https://ambasat.com/ambasat-2/ambasat-1/
>>
>> "AmbaSats are just a little bigger than the size of a couple of
>postage
>> stamps but have solar cells, a LoRaWAN radio transceiver..."
>>
>> For the dashboard, there's a big hint here:
>> "Your AmbaSat-1 is fully TTN compliant so as well as viewing data in
>your
>> Dashboard, you can sign-up for a TTN account and access your
>satellite’s
>> sensor data directly using a range of different TTN extensions."
>>
>> I think the dashboard is essentially The Things Network. I'll see
>what I
>> can find out about the dashboard availability.
>>
>> Interesting question about HABs! I think several people on this list
>are
>> much more active than I am in designing and building payloads, and
>might be
>> able to give an evaluation based on what's on the ambasat.com
>website.
>>
>> -Michelle W5NYV
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 11:56 AM KC9SGV <kc9sgv at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> The "three months in space" bit, makes me wonder.
>>> Maybe out of power by then ?
>>> (Don't see any solar panels on the board.)
>>> What would the possibility be to use the board as payload on a HAB
>(high
>>> altitude balloon).
>>> Maybe a Mylar balloon cluster achieving float, like the current
>Miami
>>> effort ?
>>> Then the environmental modules would make sense.
>>> Could you get the dashboard and web based tracking without buying
>the
>>> launch ?
>>>
>>> Bernard,
>>> KC9SGV
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
>>> On Sep 26, 2019, at 1:11 PM, Howie DeFelice via Ground-Station <
>>> ground-station at lists.openresearch.institute> wrote:
>>>
>>> It has a LoRA radio on board which is really cool. I always thought
>that
>>> LoRA on a LEO would make a great Store  and Forward messaging sat.
>The
>>> chirp spread spectrum modulation handles doppler quite well and LoRA
>chips
>>> on carrier boards are easy to find to make ground stations. 
>Unfortunately
>>> there is little chance we could license it since the FCC decided
>that
>>> anything smaller than a 1U cubesat is too small to track.
>>>
>>> Howie
>>> AB2S
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* Ground-Station <
>>> ground-station-bounces at lists.openresearch.institute> on behalf of
>>> Michelle Thompson via Ground-Station <
>>> ground-station at lists.openresearch.institute>
>>> *Sent:* Thursday, September 26, 2019 11:26 AM
>>> *To:* Michelle Thompson via Ground-Station <
>>> ground-station at lists.openresearch.institute>
>>> *Subject:* [Ground-station] Please vote - Ambasat sensor
>>>
>>> I bought into the Kickstarter for Ambasat.
>>> https://ambasat.com/
>>>
><https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fambasat.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C2c3f3cef695d4bdb07b208d7429697ee%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637051086889564741&sdata=HQ1maV9Z5PGG%2BUZf%2FqV5zFpH8qsFQ0WDvC4BHQkJ5rE%3D&reserved=0>
>>>
>>> I’d like you all to help choose the sensor!
>>>
>>> Choices here:
>>> https://ambasat.com/ambasat-2/sensor-options/
>>>
><https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fambasat.com%2Fambasat-2%2Fsensor-options%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C2c3f3cef695d4bdb07b208d7429697ee%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637051086889574740&sdata=0gUbpgbQldmIxAydIuXk6fdBWaQQmBuY8yEH48Rpe64%3D&reserved=0>
>>>
>>> Disclaimer:
>>> This has nothing to do with our project. I acknowledge that Ambasat
>is
>>> controversial. No project funds are involved.
>>>
>>> Why post this here?
>>>
>>> Details:
>>> I asked Ambasat about a custom amateur radio payload, so we could
>test
>>> something for us. The kickstarter had that option. The lead of
>Ambasat said
>>> yes, amateur payload ok, several people I asked at Virginia Tech
>said go
>>> for it, and a small group looked at the specs and tried to design
>something
>>> useful for us. But, the very compact size and power budget was quite
>>> daunting. And the time frame was very short. We don’t have enough
>>> miniaturization or time. Instead of a custom board, we have a
>standard
>>> flight and a ground version.
>>>
>>> Instead of quietly sending this up, I wanted to share it with the
>team as
>>> something fun. I just received the survey for the sensors, so we
>easily
>>> have a week at least to vote. It includes some sensors already. The
>free
>>> choice is an additional sensor slot.
>>>
>>> -Michelle W5NYV
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> -Michelle W5NYV
>>>
>>> "Potestatem obscuri lateris nescis."
>>>
>>>
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