UoSAT-OSCAR
11
Satellite Summary
Name: UoSAT-OSCAR 11 (UoSAT-2)
NASA Catalog Number: 14781
Launched: March 1, 1984
Launch vehicle: Thor Delta 3920
Launched piggyback with: LANDSAT-5
Launch location: Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California
Weight: 60 kg
Orbit: Polar LEO (Low Earth Orbit), circular, sun-synchronous
679 x 697 km.
Inclination: 98.25 degrees
Period: 99 Minutes
Size: 585 x 355 x 355 mm
Telemetry: 1200 bps FM AFSK
Downlink:
-
145.825 MHz (most common)
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435.025 MHz
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2401.5 MHz
Features:
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"Digitalker" Speech Synthesizer
-
Earth Imaging Camera (CCD)
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Space Dust Impact Detectors
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Geiger Counters
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Digital Communications Experiment (DCE)
Firsts:
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Operational digital store-and-forward communications payload
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Prototype CCD camera
Status: Semi-Operational
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The latest information is available from:
Description
At 17:59 UTC on March 1, 1984, the second satellite designed and built
by the University of Surrey's
Spacecraft Engineering Research Group - UoSAT in the United Kingdom,
UoSAT-2 (UO-11) was launched on a Delta rocket from the Western Test Range
at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, California with LANDSAT 5. It weighs
60 kg.
Among its many experiments, UoSAT-2 carried the Digital Communications
Experiment, which was one of the first (if not the first) non-military
use of store-and-forward techniques with Low Earth Orbiting Satellites.
UoSAT-2 was the test-bed for the packet radio satellites as we know them
today. (Thanks WD3Q)
For a more detailed description of UoSAT-11, read John Magliacane's,
KD2BD, Spotlight On: UoSAT-OSCAR-11 originally
published in The AMSAT Journal.
For more information also see UoSAT
& SSTL Satellite Mission Summary and UoSAT-2
Microsatellite Mission.
References
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Martin Sweeting, "The UoSAT-B Experimental Amateur Spacecraft," Orbit,
Vol 5, No. 1, Jan/Feb 1984, pp 12-16; Amsat Satellite Report, No.
74, Mar 19, 1984.
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Lyle Johnson, "The OSCAR-ll Packet Experiment," Proceedings of the ARRL
3rd Computer Networking Conference, Trenton, NJ, April 15, 1984, pp.
3.64-3.67.
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Bernie Glassmeyer, "UoSAT-OSCAR 11 Launched (Amateur Satellite Program
News)," QST, May 1984, p. 87.
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Bernie Glassmeyer, "UoSAT-OSCAR 11 Back In Service (Amateur Satellite Program
News)," QST, Jul 1984, p. 77.
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Harold E. Price and Jeff Ward, "The UO-11 DCE Message Store-and-Forward
System," Proceedings of the ARRL 5th Computer Networking Conference,
Orlando, FL, March 9th, 1986, pp. 5.109-5.114
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Robert Diersing, "Processing UoSAT Whole-Orbit Telemetry Data," Proceedings
of the 4th Annual AMSAT Space Symposium, Dallas, 1986, ARRL, pp 55-76.
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Robert Diersing, "Microcomputer Processing of UoSAT-OSCAR 9 Telemetry,"
The
ARRL Satellite Anthology, 1988, 1988, ARRL, pp 46-51.
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Jon Bloom, "A Profile of the UoSAT-OSCAR 11 Satellite," The ARRL Satellite
Anthology, ARRL, 1988, pp 52-53.
-
Martin Davidoff, The
Satellite Experimenter's Handbook, 2nd edition, The American Radio
Relay League, Newington, CT., 1990.
-
John A. Magliacane, "Spotlight On: UoSAT-OSCAR-11,"
The
AMSAT Journal, Vol. 16, No. 2, Jan/Feb 1992, p. 17.
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Last update May 31, 2003 - N7HPR