KickSat Deploys Tiny Satellites

By Doug Lung
published

Last week, SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried a "KickSat" into orbit. This is a CubeSat that contains about 100 cracker-sized satellites called "sprites" developed by Zac Manchester and his team at Cornell University. More than 300 people sponsored the KickSat project and will be allowed to transmit messages from these micro satellites.

The units were scheduled to be launched from their CubeSat mothership on May 4 to become the smallest free-flying spacecraft. The sprites will transmit packets every 30 seconds when they are powered up, and every 250 seconds when they’re in the charging mode. All sprites transmit on the same frequency--437.240 MHz.

Complete information on the sprites is available on Github in the zacinaction/kicksat repository.

Those interested should be able to receive signals using a Yagi antenna and one of the RTL-SDR USB receivers that I described in Software-Defined Radios Help Explore RF Spectrum in July 2012 or with a FunCube dongle.

A computer running Gnuradio is required to decode the signals. The kicksat-groundstation repository has a Gnuradio block and files that allow an SDR to be constructed using Gnuradio-Companion. A link budget spreadsheet shows a 10 dB gain antenna should work.

You can keep up to date with what's happening with the KickSat and its sprites on Zac's KickSat blog. For background information, see the KickSat KickStarter page.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.