The US Space Agency NASA has asked for the help of Amateur Radio operators to help in receiving the signal from NanoSail-D on 437.270MHz.
The NASA Press release says:
Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 11:30 a.m. EST, engineers at Marshall SpacemFlight Center in Huntsville, Ala., confirmed that the NanoSail-D nanosatellite ejected from Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite, FASTSAT. The ejection event occurred spontaneously and was identified this morning when engineers at the center analyzed onboard FASTSAT telemetry. The ejection of NanoSail-D also has been confirmed by ground-based satellite tracking assets.
Amateur radio operators are asked to listen for the signal to verify NanoSail-D is operating. This information should be sent to the NanoSail-D dashboard at:
http://nanosaild.engr.scu.edu/dashboard.htm .
The NanoSail-D beacon signal can be found at 437.270 MHz.
The NanoSail-D science team is hopeful the nanosatellite is healthy and can complete its solar sail mission.
After ejection, a timer within NanoSail-D begins a three-day countdown as the satellite orbits the Earth. Once the timer reaches zero, four booms will quickly deploy and the NanoSail-D sail will start to unfold to a 100-square-foot polymer sail. Within five seconds the sail fully unfurls.
Read the full NASA Press Release at
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/
releases/2011/11-009.html
Thanks to David Taylor W8AAS for spotting this item.
Source: http://www.southgatearc.org
