Special Temporary Authority application - Applicant Name
Name of Applicant:
Aerospace Corporation, THE
Special Temporary Authority application - Best Contact
First Name:
David
Last Name:
Hinkley
Phone Number:
310-336-5211
Title:
PICOSAT project manager
Special Temporary Authority application - Certification
Applicant certification
Neither the applicant nor any other party to the application is subject to a denial of Federal benefits that includes FCC benefits pursuant to Section 5301 of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, 21 U.S.C. Section 862, because of a conviction for possession or distribution of a controlled substance. The applicant hereby waives any claim to the use of any particular frequency or electromagnetic spectrum as against the regulatory power of the United States because of the prvious use of the same, whether by license or otherwise, and requests authorization in accordance with this application. (See Section 304 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended.) The applicant acknowledges that all statements made in this application and attached exhibits are considered material representations, and that all the exhibits part hereof and are incorporated herein as if set out in full in this application; undersigned certifies that all statements in this application are true, complete and correct to the best of his/her knowledge and belief and are made in good faith. Applicant certifies that construction of the station would NOT be an action which is likely to have a significant environmental effect. See the Commission's Rules, 47 CFR1.1301-1.1319.
Date:
2006-10-25 00:00:00.0
Signature of Applicant (Authorized person filing form):
David Hinkley
Title of Applicant (if any):
PICOSAT project manager
Special Temporary Authority application - Explanation
Please explain in the area below why an STA is necessary:
An STA is required due to the non-commercial, unique research-oriented and short-term nature of the operation. The experiment will be conducted over a two week period for MEPSI Picosatellite which uses a 2-week long primary battery power system and over the maximum STA award period for the AeroCube-2 satellite because it has a rechargeable power system.
Special Temporary Authority application - Information
Callsign:
WC9XUF
Class of Station:
FX MO
Nature of Service:
Experimental
Special Temporary Authority application - Initial values - Explanation
Please explain in the area below why an STA is necessary:
An STA is required due to the non-commercial, unique research-oriented and short-term nature of the operation. The experiment will be conducted over a two week period. However due to launch uncertainties, it is sometime prudent to use the earliest launch date as the start of the experiment and, say 1-2 months as the end, for licensing purposes.
Special Temporary Authority application - Initial values - Purpose of Operation
Please explain the purpose of operation:
MEPSI-2 Picosatellite test The purpose of the operation is to conduct research regarding the space application of MEMS components and related microelectronics technologies. The operation includes a demonstration of principles of the physics of the low-earth-orbit space environment and its effects on MEMS microelectronics. The MEPSI-2 is a tethered pair of two PICOSAT-class satellites, each weighs less than 1.5 KG and each is 4x4x5 inches in dimension (see Exhibits). Tether is 15 feet long. The pair are being launched on Shuttle Mission STS-116 in December 2006. The orbit is 300 Km with 52 degrees inclination. Orbital debris analysis, which depends on future solar activity, has predicted an average lifetime of less than 1-year. Each of the MEPSI-2 PICOSATs use a primary battery (no recharge capability) with an estimated lifetime of 2 weeks. Each MEPSI-2 satellite has a Freewave Technologies, Inc. FGRM radio inside which outputs 2 Watts. We have fixed the frequency (i.e. not hopping or spread spectrum) at 914.7 MHz so that we can quickly link up with the satellites rather than waiting for the hopping sequence to sync up. (Each MEPSI-2 satellite has its own serial number so only one can be talked to at any given moment). The MEPSI-2 PICOSATs have omni directional patch antennas. We have the pattern calculated and tested but use -10dB as the gain for 90% of the sphere area (see Exhibits). When the MEPSI-2 pair are ejected, they will power-on. However the radio in each satellite will be in receive-mode only. When the ground station uplinks a packet to link up with the satellite, that packet will contain a serial number for the radio. The radio will then respond and a link will be established. At that point the ground station will ask the satellite for whatever information it wants namely state of health log files or images from the cameras. The satellite will respond by downloading the requested information. When the link is lost due to the satellite passing out of view, and if it was transmitting at the time, it will try 256 times to complete the last packet transmitted. If each packet is 72 bytes long and the radio data rate is 38.4 Kbaud, then it will try for only a couple of seconds before the 256 attempts are exceeded. At that point it will go back into a passive receive mode again, awaiting the next packet from a ground station with the correct serial number. We would like to use three ground stations to communicate with MEPSI-2. Each antenna has its benefits and detriments. A typical satellite pass is 5 minutes long and occurs a couple of times a day, so the system spends a lot of time not in use. The largest antenna is the 60? diameter dish in Menlo Park, CA, near Stanford University. It has 41 dB gain, 1.5 deg beam width and would use a 2W Freewave FGRM radio on the feed horn. The second is the 16? dish at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, CA, near LAX airport. It has 30 dB gain, 5 deg beam width and also would use a 2W Freewave FGRM radio on the feed horn. The final ground station is a portable 2-meter diameter dish. This has 22 dB gain, 10 deg beam width and would use a Freewave FGRM radio with the output passed through a 9 W amplifier. This portable station we would like to use somewhere that is RF quiet and also advantageously located for maximum satellite coverage. We are thinking Anchorage Alaska would work well. Only the Palo Alto antenna will dip below 30 degrees above the horizon because it is the only one with sufficient gain. It could go as low as 10 degrees off the horizon unless the FCC has an issue however its narrow beam width will prevent it from contaminating urban areas. The other antennas will not go below 30 degrees above the horizon as this would increase the satellite link distance to an unacceptable space loss value for them.
Special Temporary Authority application - Initial values - Requested Period of Operation
Operation End Date:
12/31/2006
Special Temporary Authority application - Manufacturer
Equipment 1 Experimental
No
Equipment 1 Manufacturer
Freewave Technologies
Equipment 1 Model Number
FGRM
Equipment 1 No. Of Units
1
Special Temporary Authority application - Purpose of Operation
Please explain the purpose of operation:
MEPSI-2 Picosatellite test and AeroCube-2 test. The purpose of the operation is to conduct research regarding the space application of MEMS components and related microelectronics technologies. The operation includes a demonstration of principles of the physics of the low-earth-orbit space environment and its effects on MEMS microelectronics. The MEPSI-2 is a tethered pair of two PICOSAT-class satellites, each weighs less than 1.5 KG and each is 4x4x5 inches in dimension (see Exhibits). Tether is 15 feet long. The pair are being launched on Shuttle Mission STS-116 in December 2006. The orbit is 300 Km with 52 degrees inclination. Orbital debris analysis, which depends on future solar activity, has predicted an average lifetime of less than 1-year. A similar mission in 2002, launched off Shuttle had an orbit lifetime of 3 months, so the1-year is conservative. Each of the MEPSI-2 PICOSATs use a primary battery (no recharge capability) with an estimated lifetime of 2 weeks. The AeroCube-2 is a PICOSAT class satellite, weighs less than 1 KG and is a 10 cm cube (see Exhibits). It is being launched as part of an 8-Cubesat complement delivered to Russia by the Cal Poly CubeSat Program (www.Cubesat.org). The launch is on board a DNEPR vehicle in Kazakhstan, slated for a December 2006 launch but it may slip. The orbit is 650 Km Apogee and 800 Km perigee with 97 degrees inclination. Orbital debris analysis (see Exhibits), which depends on future solar activity, has an average lifetime of 30.4 years. Therefore, AeroCube-2 inflates a drag enhancing balloon that is approximately 108 square inches (12 inch diameter balloon) in drag area, minimum. This will reduce the lifetime to 10 years. Each MEPSI-2 satellite and the AeroCube-2 satellite has a Freewave Technologies, Inc. FGRM radio inside which outputs 2 Watts. We have fixed the frequency (i.e. not hopping or spread spectrum) at 914.7 MHz so that we can quickly link up with the satellites rather than waiting for the hopping sequence to sync up. (Each radio has its own serial number so only one can be talked to at any given moment). The MEPSI-2 PICOSATs and the AeroCube-2 have omni-directional patch antennas. We have the pattern calculated and tested but use -10dB as the gain for 90% of the sphere area (see Exhibits). When the MEPSI-2 pair or the AeroCube-2 satellite are ejected, they will power-on. However the radio in each satellite will be in receive-mode only. When the ground station uplinks a packet to link up with the satellite, that packet will contain a serial number for the radio. The radio will then respond and a link will be established. At that point the ground station will ask the satellite for whatever information it wants namely state of health log files or images from the cameras. The satellite will respond by downloading the requested information. When the link is lost due to the satellite passing out of view, and if it was transmitting at the time, it will try 256 times to complete the last packet transmitted. If each packet is 72 bytes long and the radio data rate is 38.4 Kbaud, then it will try for only a couple of seconds before the 256 attempts are exceeded. At that point it will go back into a passive receive mode again, awaiting the next packet from a ground station with the correct serial number. We would like to use three ground stations to communicate with MEPSI-2 satellites or the AeroCube-2 satellite. Each antenna has its benefits and detriments. A typical satellite pass is 5 minutes long and occurs a couple of times a day, so the system spends a lot of time not in use. The largest antenna is the 60? diameter dish in Menlo Park, CA, near Stanford University. It has 41 dB gain, 1.5 deg beam width and would use a 2W Freewave FGRM radio on the feed horn. The second is the 16? dish at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, CA, near LAX airport. It has 30 dB gain, 5 deg beam width and also would use a 2W Freewave FGRM radio on the feed horn. The final ground station is a portable 2-meter diameter dish. This has 22 dB gain, 10 deg beam width and would use a Freewave FGRM radio with the output passed through a 9 W amplifier. This portable station we would like to use somewhere that is RF quiet and also advantageously located for maximum satellite coverage. We are thinking Anchorage Alaska would work well. Only the Palo Alto antenna will dip below 30 degrees above the horizon because it is the only one with sufficient gain. It could go as low as 10 degrees off the horizon unless the FCC has an issue however its narrow beam width will prevent it from contaminating urban areas. The other antennas will not go below 30 degrees above the horizon as this would increase the satellite link distance to an unacceptable space loss value for them.
Special Temporary Authority application - Requested Period of Operation