SOMP

SOMP

Students Oxygen Measurement Project

Mission

SOMP-ModelThe miniature satellite has to support not only the aim of teaching and education, two scientific mission objectives: Firstly, to the atomic oxygen in the residual atmosphere (between 400 and 600 kilometers) can be measured. Furthermore, it forms a technology demonstrator for advanced thin film solar cells.

All exterior surfaces, unless occupied by the payload, will be equipped with solar cells. Thus an available solar cells area of 0.03 m² is reached. The solar cells are the only source of energy. For intermediate storage of electric energy Li-ion batteries are used. For the operation of the spacecraft and the payload are less than 2W available. Inside of the satellite located on the electronics of the four boards distributed payload of the communication system, the main controller, the power supply and the position control. Between the symmetrically arranged circuit boards, the accumulators are placed. A permanent and targeted at certain orientations of the satellite attitude control is not provided. Instead, the concept is limited to the determination of the location and position of the satellite and to the provision of an adequate “wobbling” of the satellite.

Orbital parameters

Name                 SOMP
NORAD                39135
COSPAR designation   2013-015-F
Inclination          64.868
RA of A. Node        173.323
Eccentricity         0.0033879
Argument of Perigee  288.711
Revs per day         15.05755659
Period               1h 35m 37s (95.62 min)
Semi-major axis      6 927 km
Perigee x Apogee     526 x 573 km
BStar (drag term)    0.000545060 1/ER
Mean anomaly         71.034

Downlink

435.485 MHz 1k2 FM AFSK and BPSK

Beacon

435.485 MHz CW

Call

DP0TUD

Preliminary TLE

SOMP
1 99998U  SOMP    13111.36805556 -.00000027  00000-0 -23507-5 0 00006
2 99998 064.9233 011.6923 0011347 233.6814 119.7511 14.96654866000010

Telemetry

Receiving the Morse beacon: When operational SOMP sends every 1 minute a Morse beacon. Every third period with 12 wpm. The others are sent with 240 wpm. The transmitted text consists of 3 words with 19 characters, with the following structure: DP0TUD AAA BBBBBBBB. With a program that is available via the website, the received characters can be decoded, or one can alternatively, download a Java application that is available for download.

Status

Deployed and Active. Will be launched by a Soyuz 2.1a from Plesetsk SC on April 20, 2013. Orbit will be 575 km circular at 63° inclination.


Homepage and other references:

SOMP Satellite information.
Amateur radio information.