[SFDXA] ARLS002 "Space Sailors" Seeking Download Help from Ham Radio Operators

[Bill]

ARLS002 "Space Sailors" Seeking Download Help from Ham Radio Operators

	

SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS002

ARLS002 "Space Sailors" Seeking Download Help from Ham Radio Operators

ZCZC AS02

QST de W1AW

Space Bulletin 002 ARLS002

 From ARRL Headquarters

Newington, CT December 2, 2025

To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS002

ARLS002 "Space Sailors" Seeking Download Help from Ham Radio Operators

A group of students at Cornell University is seeking participation from 
radio amateurs who are equipped with satellite stations for help in 
listening for signals from a retroreflective laser sail that is 
scheduled to be deployed later this week. The sail is currently attached 
to a 1U CubeSat that was launched early Tuesday, December 2, 2025, from 
the International Space Station, but will separate and become its own 
free-flying spacecraft equipped with four tiny "ChipSat" flight 
computers that will transmit telemetry data back to Earth.

This is the first flight of their ChipSats, and it is this data that the 
students seek help detecting, according to Ph.D. candidate Joshua 
Umansky-Castro, who has an amateur radio license, call sign KD2WTQ. The 
light sail's ChipSats will be transmitting data using the LoRa digital 
protocol on 437.400 MHz. The sail, stowed within the CubeSat, is 
expected to be released a couple of days after deployment - tentatively 
this Thursday, December 4 - and will likely function independently for 
no more than 48 hours due to the drag created by the sail.

Additional information, including LoRa parameters and links to a list of 
compatible receivers and the decoder file, may be found at the 
https://alphacubesat.cornell.edu site 
<https://arrl.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT0zNTAxODg2JnA9MSZ1PTUyNTQ3MzY2NCZsaT00MDc0MjI4NA/index.html> 
in the ChipSat Ground Station Guide located at 
https://cornell.app.box.com/s/n4se5ku0ltjb1of2piagfz1y7xa92n47 
<https://arrl.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT0zNTAxODg2JnA9MSZ1PTUyNTQ3MzY2NCZsaT00MDc0MjI4NQ/index.html>.

It is hoped that the ChipSat and light sail will become the trailblazers 
for future missions around the solar system, and one day to our closest 
stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri.

NNNN

/EX

	

	

ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®

	

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