Fox-1A

Fox-1A

Fox-1A

American amateur radio satellite


Fox-1A, AO-85 or AMSAT OSCAR 85[3] is an American amateur radio satellite. It is a 1U Cubesat, was built by the AMSAT-NA and carries a single-channel transponder for FM radio. The satellite has one rod antenna each for the 70 centimetres (28 in) and 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) bands. To enable a satellite launch under NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program, the satellite continues to carry a Penn State University student experiment (MEMS gyroscope).

Quick Facts Mission type, Operator ...

According to AMSAT-NA, Fox-1A will replace OSCAR 51. Upon successful launch, the satellite was assigned OSCAR number 85.

Launch and mission

The satellite was launched on 8 October 2015 with an Atlas V rocket together with the main payload Intruder 11A (also known as NOSS-3 7A, USA 264 and NROL 55) and 12 other Cubesat satellites (SNaP-3 ALICE, SNaP-3 EDDIE, SNaP-3 JIMI, LMRSTSat, SINOD-D 1, SINOD-D 3, AeroCube 5C, OCSD A, ARC 1, BisonSat, PropCube 1 and PropCube 3) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, United States. After just a few hours, the transponder was put into operation, initial connections were made between amateur radio stations and telemetry was received.

Fox-1A (AO-85) Safe Mode Beacon
Fox-1A (AO-85) Transponder Mode Beacon

Status

Since December 2018, AO-85 has suffered from dangerously low battery voltage while in eclipse. As a result, AMSAT have disabled all on board transmitters in an effort to extend the usable life of the satellite. Transmitters are periodically turned back on to collect telemetry data.[4]

See also


References

  1. "Fox 1". NSSDCA. NASA GSFC. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  2. "FOX-1A (AO-85)". n2yo.com. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  3. "AO-85 (Fox-1A) FM Voice Transponder Activated". Trevor Essex. 9 October 2015. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  4. "AO-85 Status Update – AMSAT". 20 December 2018. Retrieved 2021-02-23.



Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Fox-1A, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.