LightSail 2 to transmit Morse Code ID on 437.025 MHz

(Source: Southgate ARC and ARRL)

The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 CubeSat, launched on June 25, will transmit Morse code from space.

LightSail is a citizen-funded project to send a small spacecraft, propelled solely by sunlight, into Earth’s orbit. The innovative satellite is due to be deployed on July 2 from Prox-1, a Georgia Tech student-built spacecraft the size of a small washing machine.

Once deployed, LightSail 2 will automatically transmit a beacon packet every few seconds, which can be decoded into 238 lines of text telemetry describing the spacecraft’s health and status, including everything from battery status to solar sail deployment motor state. Every 45 seconds, the spacecraft will transmit “LS2” on the spacecraft’s frequency of 437.025 MHz, within the Amateur Radio 70-centimeter band.

Further details can be found online at,
http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sailing/ .[…]

Click here to read the full article at the Southgate ARC.

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3 thoughts on “LightSail 2 to transmit Morse Code ID on 437.025 MHz

  1. Andrew

    The satellite successfully separated from the launch vehicle and started transmitting telemetry data and CW beacon signal

    http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/first-contact-lightsail-2.html

    the frequency is the reported one (437.025 MHz) but the CW ID was incorrect, the transmitted CW ID is “WM9XPA”, the ones interesting in tracking the satellite will find further informations here

    http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sailing/#see-and-track

    plus, the n2yo website allows to track the satellite orbit in real time

    https://www.n2yo.com/?s=99999&live=1

    Reply

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