The Deployable Optical Receiver Array (DORA) is a 3U testbed for future communications and radio astronomy technology. It includes a pathfinder for widefield optical laser receivers and a low frequency radio spectrometer which aims to find the last radio quiet areas on earth in the meter wavelength bands.

The DORA project is a partnership between ASU’s Low Frequency Cosmology lab who led the mission and the Interplanetary Lab who built and operated the spacecraft. See the LoCo DORA page

NASA partners with universities for soil-monitoring and optical comms CubeSats (1 Aug 2024)

Status

• SAFE mode with sun pointing faults limiting charge capabilities
• Beacons continue to be heard in sunlight and commands accepted

Tracking info

NORAD ID#: 61502
Temporary NORAD ID (Satnogs): 98911
TLE: Get the latest from Celestrak

Transponder

Operation Frequency: 436.825 MHz
Modulation: GMFSK, 7.3kbps
Transmitter: OpenLST
Beacon Transmits every 30s.

Telemetry Encoding:

• RF Modulation: GMSK
• FEC: No
• Encoding rate: 7300 baud
• Byte definition: 8 bits, 1 stop, even parity

Updates

4 Aug 2024

After a one day delay while we wait for a gap in Hurricane Debby Cygnus is off on a picture perfect launch from Kennedy Space Center.

7 Oct 2024

• DORA is scheduled for deployment tomorrow morning 8 Oct 5:25 CT
• Livestream: youtube

8 Oct 2024

• 10:25GMT / 3:25AZ DORA is deployed from the ISS
• 11:20 DORA has been detected over Australia!

9 Oct 2024

• DORA has been detected by the ASU ground station. Commands were issued and have been received
• Battery fully charged and solar panels providing power!
• The ground station receiver is not working (We think we blew the LNA during transmit. A better sequencer system is already in work!)
• Currently operating in bistatic mode. Send commands from ASU, check reception via satnogs.
• OpenLST radio working well, but framing not supported out of the box into satnogs.
• Manually demodulating data with winmodem for now.

11 Oct 2024

• Attempted to command DORA sun tracking.
• No charging indicated. Tracking command has probably caused an undesired motion away from sun

15 Oct 2024

• DORA beacons continue to be reported by Satnogs stations.
• Attempting ADCS to restore pointing.
• New: Satnogs dashboard

18 Oct 2024

• Continuing to upload ADCS configuration changes.
• Power seems to have stabilized a bit. Battery heaters no longer firing. Battery voltage climbing. Charging in the sun most times. Resets have become less common.

20 Oct 2024

• Power is a problem again! Continuing the project of calibrating the attitude system
• Commands are confirmed received and when it runs the attitude system reports to be in the desired mode.
• However stable sun tracking remains illusive

22 Oct 2024

• Repeated cold soaks for the battery put its ability to maintain charge in doubt.
• Beacons continue to be heard and commands continue to be accepted.
• We aren’t giving up and will continue to attempt calibration activities