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

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

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

Late 2015, with the successful launch and activation ofLAPAN-A2/ORARI (which becomes IO-86) satellite, the students grew interest ofbuilding a satellite as it is only a couple of kilometers higher they said. So in2016 the ORARI team visit them and shared the experience in designing asatellite, as I myself was part of the ORARI team that involved in the designof the amateur payload in the LAPAN-A2/ORARI. As this would be their firsteffort in building a satellite from scratch, they said we will start with APRSthen next satellite would be a voice repeater satellite. They submitted thedesign in a competition by UNOOSA and won.

The student got more excited after seeing the POC (proof ofconcept) worked and they continue with building the prototype, conductedvarious tests with LAPAN (the aeronautical and space organization) andcomplying with the necessary paperwork/approvals. But the road wasn’t easy asthey got funding problem (at one time they were selling T-Shirt to raisefunding), change in faculty advisor and university leadership and their owngraduation and transition into the professional world (some of them gotemployed in commercial satellite companies). Finally they got back in the last2 years to finalize the payload, had the payload verification with ORARI teamand shipped the payload to Japan (JAXA), integrated with other payload andshipped to the US, then lifted up on Space-X CRS-26 rocket to ISS last Novemberand now today is the deployment date from the Kibo Module of ISS.

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

73 de Yono Adisoemarta – YD0NXX / N5SNN

ORARI HQ – Head of Satellite Division