LightCube is a 1U Cubesat with an outreach and accessibility goal of providing a connection to space and to the night sky. It does this by providing a momentary flash of light that is visible to the naked eye and can be triggered by any amateur radio operator.

ElaNa #50, Whats on board? 3/8/2023.

Status

Deployed and confirmed beaconing
Public Flash Trigger: Closed
TLE (updated 24 April 1800 PT)
LIGHTCUBE 1 99165U 23033XXX 123114.50347222 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0
2 XXXXX 51.5364 234.2242 0008904 243.7630 219.3857 15.50958337

Transponder

Operation Frequency: 437.175 MHz
Modulation: FM (Narrowband) 2.5 kHz
Command/Response: DTMF tone sequence
Transmitter Power: 1W - 5W
Beacon Transmits every 30s. Data encoding details TBD

Telemetry Encoding:

• RF Modulation: FM
• Audio Sound Modulation: AFSK Bell 103
• Encoding rate: 300 baud
• Byte definition: 8 bits, 1 stop, even parity
• Note: Bytes are trailed by two unused bits.
• Heartbeat packet Rev A, updated 25 April 2023
• Telemetry decoding gnuradio flowgraphs on github

Updates

22 April 2023

Deployment from the ISS is set for 24 April 2023 at 05:30 Pacific Time.

24 April 2023

Deployed from ISS
Beacon received by satnogs users and at ASU ground station
Lightcube assigned temporary NORAD ID 99165
Provisional TLE
LIGHTCUBE 1 99165U 23033XXX 123114.50347222 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0
2 XXXXX 51.5364 234.2242 0008904 243.7630 219.3857 15.50958337

25 April 2023

Heartbeat telemetry decoded from audio recordings! Battery at 88% and charging. Packet definition and flowgraphs now linked above. Operations discussion at Librespace.

New TLE based on Satnogs observations.

LightCube 1 99165U 23115.20000000 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 07
2 99165 51.6414 230.2247 0005920 174.6015 220.5620 15.50201805 07

26 April

Telemetry from Satnogs stations show battery temperatures below freezing! The heater is not doing its job.

During a low pass over ASU two beacons were heard but could not be decoded.

27 April

No beacons have been heard today. The worst is feared.

30 April

The mission is declared lost. Further attempts to contact are abandoned. Flash On, Lightcube!

13 Sept 2023

An investigation has traced the root cause to the primary flight computer where the battery heater was left disabled in software. Beware RBF pragmas! For more details, see Berkhout et al 2023