Любительские спутники AMSAT: История и развитие

Amateur radio satellite organizations

AMSAT is a name for various amateur radio satellite organizations worldwide. In particular, it often refers to the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, headquartered in Washington, D. C. AMSAT organizations design, build, arrange launches for, and then operate (command) satellites carrying amateur radio payloads, including the OSCAR series of satellites. Other informally affiliated national organizations exist, such as AMSAT Germany (AMSAT DL) and AMSAT Japan (JAMSAT).

AMSAT was founded in 1969 in Washington, D. C. to continue the efforts begun by Project OSCAR. Its first project was to coordinate the launch of OSCAR 5, constructed by students at the University of Melbourne. Some design modifications were needed and were made by AMSAT members, and the satellite was successfully launched on 30 January 1970, on a NASA Thor Delta launch vehicle. AMSAT's next launch was AMSAT OSCAR 6 (AO 6) on 15 October 1972. AO 6 was AMSAT's first long life satellite, and was built with participants from Australia and West Germany. Command stations in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Hungary, Morocco, New Zealand, the United States and West Germany controlled the satellite, contributing greatly to its 4.5 years of service. Further launches continued to emphasize international cooperation, with AMSAT OSCAR 7 (AO 7) launching with a new transponder developed and built by Karl Meinzer and AMSAT Germany (AMSAT DL). AMSAT Japan (JAMSAT) contributed a transponder to AMSAT OSCAR 8 (AO 8). In order to launch its satellites, AMSAT has worked with space agencies and commercial launch contractors to develop new ways to take advantage of unused areas of launch vehicles. In return, AMSAT sometimes can negotiate a reduction or waiver of launch costs. One of the most significant is the Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads (ASAP), developed and manufactured in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1990 for use on its Ariane 4 launch vehicle. AMSAT was again able to take advantage of unused space with the launch of AMSAT OSCAR 40 (AO 40), occupying unused space on an Ariane 5. The IPS threaded code language, developed for AMSAT Phase III, is the first known use of a high level language on board a spacecraft. Another 16 bit IPS implementation was specifically developed to run on the ARM CPU in the IHU 2 on the AMSAT P3D. A 32 bit IPS implementation has been developed for the AMSAT P3E satellite and the AMSAT P5A mission to Mars, which also have ARM CPUs. Emulators for both the classic 16 bit and the 32 bit IPS language and development environment are available for many other systems.

The AMSAT Phase system describes an amateur satellite based upon its capabilities or mode of operation and roughly parallel the development of amateur satellites. Phase 1: No solar cells (battery powered only), short lived, technology test bed. Must be able to orbit to be classified as a satellite. Phase 2: Long life using solar cells, communications capabilities, Low Earth Orbit. Phase 3: Long life, more powerful communications, telemetry and command systems. Highly elliptical orbit, usually a Molniya orbit; usually the initial orbit is a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), onboard propulsion systems boosting it to its final orbit. Because of the highly elliptical orbit, the satellite remains over an area for long periods of time, allowing amateurs longer contacts through the satellite. Phase 4: Amateur satellite in geostationary orbit (GEO). Currently, the only amateur radio transponders in orbit are a secondary mission aboard Es'hail 2, designated as QO 100 by AMSAT on 26 February 2019. Phase 5: Spacecraft capable of lunar or planetary missions.

Most amateur satellites do not receive their sequential OSCAR designation until after they are successfully in orbit, and then only at the request of the launching organization. Fox 1D (AO 92) was launched on 12 January 2018 on the PSLV C40 mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. Fox 1Cliff was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 SSO A rocket on 3 December 2018. These four Fox satellites contain FM transponders with uplink on the 70 cm band and downlink on the 2 metre band. RadFxSat 2/Fox 1E, a variation of the Fox 1 series, carrying a mode V/U linear transponder has been accepted for a launch by the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative. Fox 1E was launched into orbit aboard a Virgin Orbit LauncherOne vehicle on 17 January 2021. Although the beacon has not been heard, the linear transponder is at least partially functioning with a low level downlink signal. AMSAT is currently developing the GOLF series of CubeSats with the first satellite in the series, GOLF TEE, expected to launch in 2022. The GOLF series is designed to test technologies for future high Earth orbit (HEO) missions. AMSAT also offers a communications platform for university CubeSats. The AMSAT Linear Transponder Module (LTM) includes a VHF/UHF telemetry beacon, command receiver, and linear transponder. The first LTM flew on HuskySat OSCAR 107 in 2020. In July 2020, AMSAT and the University of Maine announced that an LTM would be provided for the University of Maine's MESAT1 CubeSat, Maine's first small satellite. Additionally, AMSAT supports amateur radio on human spaceflight missions as a supporting partner of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). This partnership includes support for future missions on the Lunar Gateway. AMSAT also supports STEM education and has developed a CubeSat Simulator as part of these efforts.

AMSAT operates the AO 7, AO 91, and AO 92 satellites, which are open for general amateur use. The U. S. Air Force FalconSAT 3 was turned over to AMSAT for amateur radio use in late September 2017. AO 95 was launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 SSO A mission on 4 December 2018 and was later determined to have poor to no RF reception capability, thus preventing commissioning and putting its FM transponder mission into indefinite suspension.