December 2019 update
Hi all,
Let’s start with some good news!
SHIPPING STARTS JANUARY 2020!
We will be shipping the first AmbaSat-1 Satellite Kits starting in the second week of January, 2020. Yay! Thank you everyone for your patience. As I’m sure you will all appreciate, creating something that is going into Space is not easy. We’ve spent over three years getting this far and faced many challenges along the way, not only technical but also logistical, government, licensing and not to mention a lot of red tape. However, we’ve been diligently working through each challenge to ensure that everything is right for not only the kit deliveries but also the satellite testing process and the rocket launch. Part of this process has involved many technical meetings and last month in Mojave, California we met with our rocket launch partner – Inter Orbital Systems (IOS). During these meetings we discussed the challenges and what changes may be needed to the AmbaSat-1 board in order to meet a range of different launch configurations. IOS were great in coming up with solutions so that we can continue with the AmbaSat-1 format unaltered. It was a big hurdle for us and great to get over it. This means that we’ve now been able to release the satellite design to production.
More good news – Launch Manifest Announcement and Press Release
Keep an eye open for an imminent announcement and press release regarding launch dates and launch manifest. These will be announced on our blog at:
https://ambasat.com/blog/
Subscribe to the blog to get more regular updates and other news.
SHIPPING
The shipping will be completed in batches, starting with the Sensor 01 option and the complete assembly kits – ie. those where the choice has been to self-solder every component, including the MCU and GAM-9D. We will be contacting all backers over the next few weeks to confirm kit configurations, options and any extra payments for those sensor choices previously made. As a reminder, the sensor list can be viewed here:
https://ambasat.com/ambasat-2/sensor-options/
We have added a shopping cart to the AmbaSat website and this will be fully up and running shortly. This can be used to pay for the sensor additions and also to purchase AmbaSat-1 Satellites and rocket launches.
We met again last week with Mowden who are our expert electronics assembly partner. They will be professionally mounting the SMD components for the partial and fully-assembled AmbaSat-1 kit options.
Thank you to everyone who requested the AmbaSat-1 board. These should be getting shipped to you between Christmas and the New Year. Any other requests, please email Jenny. There is a nominal £5 price for the board.
GPS Sensor
We have again experienced some delay in the GPS Sensor development. Unfortunately it looks like we’ll need to go back to the design stage for this. More updates on the blog as and when things develop.
AmbaSat-1 in Education
Since July we’ve been working with a number of educational institutes in developing a ten week student course: AmbaSat-1 Space Satellite Kit – From Assembly to Space
The AmbaSat ten-week course will be available in the new year and will take students through the AmbaSat-1 kit, the basics of electronics, assembly and soldering, coding, the AmbaSat Dashboard, testing your satellite, rocket history and the NEPTUNE launch rocket, the history of satellites in space, your satellite orbit, data analysis and much more. The course is geared towards STEM. For interested groups, schools, colleges and universities out there, please contact Jenny for further details.
Kicksat in Space!
As many will know, the AmbaSat-1 satellite was born out of the Kicksat idea, originally developed by Zac Manchester and his team. Although this reference is from earlier in the year, it’s fantastic news that finally, 105 tiny spriteclass satellites were launched into Low Earth Orbit. Well done Zac, his team and all the backers who supported the project. This is proof that the whole spriteclass concept works. A truly great achievement. More details here: https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/04/kicksat-2-project-launches-105-cracker-sized-satellites/
And Finally
From all of us at AmbaSat, thank you as always for your support and we wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and fantastic 2020!
