Speaking of the PSLV…

The Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey recently built the DeorbitSail satellite, which is designed to demonstrate the capacity to use deployable sails to rapidly deorbit dead satellites. The project included input from several other universities.

It launched recently from India. It was piggybacked on a PSLV launch of four larger satellites.

The sail is 25 square metres in area but before deployment, the satellite is 10 cm x 10 cm x 34 cm in size, roughly as big as a shoebox. The total mass of this satellite is 7 kg. The price of piggybacked launches tends to be about 2 to 3 times the bulk price per kg, so the launch cost may have been in the range from $60000 to $90000. That’s strictly my estimate. The total budget, including planning, design, building, launch and operation is 2.8 million euro, mostly from the EU.

Telemetry data is being received by amateur radio people around the world.

http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ssc/index.htm
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ssc/research/space_vehicle_control/deorbitsail/
https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/d/deorbitsail

PSLV is an Indian rocket.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Satellite_Launch_Vehicle

“The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, commonly known by its abbreviation PSLV, is an expendable launch system developed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation”

Michael V said:

PSLV is an Indian rocket.

Well duh … I just went through all that in the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) thread …

I just assume everyone reads all my stuff.

Hey whatever happened to BLUEsat? They finished building it (at UNSW) some years ago but to my knowledge it still has not launched.

dv said:

Hey whatever happened to BLUEsat? They finished building it (at UNSW) some years ago but to my knowledge it still has not launched.

It’s mentioned here … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSCAR but the site says the next launch will be in 2014 :(

a lot of people don’t realise how up with it hams are. they had some of the earliest repeater sats. slow scan tv transmissions.

How many people here are hams? (No, Boris, I don’t mean that kind of ham.)

never got a ham license but was a SWL for a few years as a teenager.

JudgeMental said:

never got a ham license but was a SWL for a few years as a teenager.

Spring Weight Loss?

AussieDJ said:

dv said:

Hey whatever happened to BLUEsat? They finished building it (at UNSW) some years ago but to my knowledge it still has not launched.

It’s mentioned here … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSCAR but the site says the next launch will be in 2014 :(

the Australian space programme stays on paper

jjjust moi said:

JudgeMental said:

never got a ham license but was a SWL for a few years as a teenager.

Spring Weight Loss?

Short Wave Listener

I still listen to SW from time to time. Oh, and I’m a ham, as well.

AussieDJ said:

jjjust moi said:

JudgeMental said:

never got a ham license but was a SWL for a few years as a teenager.

Spring Weight Loss?

Short Wave Listener

I still listen to SW from time to time. Oh, and I’m a ham, as well.

Have they figured out what numbers stations are yet? And are they still used?

AwesomeO said:

AussieDJ said:

jjjust moi said:

Spring Weight Loss?

Short Wave Listener

I still listen to SW from time to time. Oh, and I’m a ham, as well.

Have they figured out what numbers stations are yet? And are they still used?

yes I think

wookiemeister said:

AwesomeO said:

AussieDJ said:

Short Wave Listener

I still listen to SW from time to time. Oh, and I’m a ham, as well.

Have they figured out what numbers stations are yet? And are they still used?

yes I think

I suppose if it is secret squirrel stuff it still has advantages over social media transmitting.

AwesomeO said:

wookiemeister said:

AwesomeO said:

Have they figured out what numbers stations are yet? And are they still used?

yes I think

I suppose if it is secret squirrel stuff it still has advantages over social media transmitting.

probably tells person A to make their way to a location, or next agreed meet

AwesomeO said:

AussieDJ said:

jjjust moi said:

Spring Weight Loss?

Short Wave Listener

I still listen to SW from time to time. Oh, and I’m a ham, as well.

Have they figured out what numbers stations are yet? And are they still used?

According to wikipedia there are still several numbers stations running, and several station monitoring groups. There have been some positively identified one-time-pad encrypted messages, and some confirmed to have been broadcasts to spies.

btm said:

AwesomeO said:

AussieDJ said:

Short Wave Listener

I still listen to SW from time to time. Oh, and I’m a ham, as well.

Have they figured out what numbers stations are yet? And are they still used?

According to wikipedia there are still several numbers stations running, and several station monitoring groups. There have been some positively identified one-time-pad encrypted messages, and some confirmed to have been broadcasts to spies.

Okely dokely will have a look. As far as I can recall it has always been conjecture and supposition and no country or agency definitively fingered. It is pretty clear what it probably is but whose is the question.

AwesomeO said:

btm said:

AwesomeO said:

Have they figured out what numbers stations are yet? And are they still used?

According to wikipedia there are still several numbers stations running, and several station monitoring groups. There have been some positively identified one-time-pad encrypted messages, and some confirmed to have been broadcasts to spies.

Okely dokely will have a look. As far as I can recall it has always been conjecture and supposition and no country or agency definitively fingered. It is pretty clear what it probably is but whose is the question.

Britain i’d say – it strikes me as something the English would do