Story of SuryaSat-1 (SS-1) Nano Satellite

 

This afternoon 6 January 2023, at 07:50 UTC, there will be the culmination of the long journey of Surya Satellite (SS-1) Nano Satellite project that started in 2016 after a presentation of amateur radio activities by ORARI (the Indonesian Radio Amateurs Organization) to students of University of Surya.

In early 2015 ORARI made a presentation to University of Surya Robotic Club, and one of the amateur radio activities that got their interest was high-altitude ballooning due to the telemetry aspect, such as sending temperature, altitude, voltage, as it relates to their robotic interest. I showed them a couple pictures of my past activity in ARHAB as the faculty advisor of amateur radio society at Texas Tech University in early 2000. This started the high-altitude balloon planning, including designing the balloon payload (APRS utilizing OpenTracker mini board).

Late 2015, with the successful launch and activation of LAPAN-A2/ORARI (which becomes IO-86) satellite, the students grew interest of building a satellite as it is only a couple of kilometers higher they said. So in 2016 the ORARI team visit them and shared the experience in designing a satellite, as I myself was part of the ORARI team that involved in the design of the amateur payload in the LAPAN-A2/ORARI. As this would be their first effort in building a satellite from scratch, they said we will start with APRS then next satellite would be a voice repeater satellite. They submitted the design in a competition by UNOOSA and won.

The student got more excited after seeing the POC (proof of concept) worked and they continue with building the prototype, conducted various tests with LAPAN (the aeronautical and space organization) and complying with the necessary paperwork/approvals. But the road wasn’t easy as they got funding problem (at one time they were selling T-Shirt to raise funding), change in faculty advisor and university leadership and their own graduation and transition into the professional world (some of them got employed in commercial satellite companies). Finally they got back in the last 2 years to finalize the payload, had the payload verification with ORARI team and shipped the payload to Japan (JAXA), integrated with other payload and shipped to the US, then lifted up on Space-X CRS-26 rocket to ISS last November and now today is the deployment date from the Kibo Module of ISS.

Apologize for the long posting but I got really excited today as the deployment of SS-1 Nano Satellite is coming up shortly.

 

73 de Yono Adisoemarta – YD0NXX / N5SNN

ORARI HQ – Head of Satellite Division