ESEO student satellite to enter final test phase

Dr Chris Bridges M0IEB and Pete Bartram conduct uplink command testing on the ESEO payload in the grounds of University of Surrey

The European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO) satellite carries the AMSAT-UK FUNcube-4 amateur radio 1260/145 MHz FM transponder. On September 27 it successfully completed the vibrations test.

In the past few years, ten student teams from different European universities have combined forces to produce essential equipment for the spacecraft, including subsystems parts, scientific or technology demonstration instrumentation, and the ground mission control support for this micro-satellite mission, planned to fly to Low Earth Orbit later this year.

The project reached an important milestone on August 28, 2018, when the assembly integration of the ESEO spacecraft was declared complete. In this phase all the satellite’s physical parts were assembled together, and all functional interconnections were checked to confirm they work as required.

On September 27, 2018 ESEO reached another key milestone, when it successfully completed the vibrations test campaign at SITAEL’s premises in Mola di Bari, Italy. ESEO has now demonstrated that its design is solid enough to safely withstand the mechanical solicitations it will undergo during the rocket launch.

In the next couple of weeks it will undergo the so-called thermal vacuum and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) tests at ESA’s ESTEC site in the Netherlands.

Read the full ESA story at
http://www.esa.int/Education/ESEO/A_step_closer_to_launch_-_ESEO_student_satellite_to_enter_final_test_phase

AMSAT-UK ESEO page
https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/communications/eseo/

ESEO satellite FUNcube-4 transponder talk will take place at the RSGB Convention on Sunday, October 14. The talk will be streamed live to a global audience, details at
https://amsat-uk.org/2018/08/27/eseo-satellite-funcube-4/