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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
in the ChipSat
Ground Station
Guide located
at https://cornell.app.box.com/s/n4se5ku0ltjb1of2piagfz1y7xa92n47.
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
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