TSUBAME (satellite)

[6][7] Early concepts of the mission also included tether formation control experiments[6] but this objective appears to have been dropped from the final design.

Early results from the check-in phase, where hardware is activated and vital functions checked, were positive, but a week after launch issues with RF command receiver (in the FM broadcast band) were observed.

Later, issues developed with the satellite spin rate, S-band communications, GPS receiver, and battery voltage and temperature.

Subsequent analysis of communications with the satellite and laboratory reproduction have revealed that the ultimate loss of contact and some of the other issues were caused by a failure in a DC-DC converter.

Similar to other satellites developed by the space systems laboratory at Tokyo Institute of Technology, TSUBAME had an FM band receiver and ultra high frequency transmitter which could communicate with the university's ground station.

The UHF transmitter broadcast continuously after deployment so that amateur radio operators could assist in tracking the satellite.

The volume of data that TSUBAME was expected to produce (on the order of tens of megabytes) could not be quickly broadcast by the radio transmitter, so an additional S-band transceiver was also included, even though an S-band antenna was not immediately available to the university; it was hoped that Fukui University of Technology would allow use of a 10m parabolic antenna after the launch.

When an increase in the count rate was detected by one or more scintillators, the main processor would determine the direction, initiate control systems of the satellite.

To mitigate background noise, the HXCP was surrounded by metal composite shielding, and coincidence between the two scintillating materials could be compared and processed by onboard computers.