GP ADVANCED PROJECTS

Where everything started

FEES is a 1/3U Cubesat for in-orbit demonstration and validation of electronic components.

Cubesats systems were born in 1999 as a result of the cooperation between California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University, which defined the standards of this new satellite category. Typical Cubesats have a 10x10x10 cm dimension, 1U volume and are nominally in the nanosat or picosat satellite class.

These attributes being set, Cubesats allow affordable cost launch and different applications, since they lend themselves to educational, scientific and commercial purposes.

FEES: Flexible Experimental Embedded Satellite

More than fifteen years later than the first cubesat prototype, we knew we could go even further. This vision led us to the development a 1/3U Cubesat, miniaturising the Cubesat technology in just 30% of former volume. FEES is the result of our commitment to this project.

Incredible partners like Politecnico di Milano, Brno University of Technology, CESI, LINKIT, Laser and Pandigital joined us in the program, giving birth to a 10x10x3cm satellite with a 300g mass which has been launched into orbit in October 2020.

Mission goals and purposes

FEES Mission had three main goals. First of all, we aimed to obtain an in-orbit qualification of both an attitude determination architecture and a commercial GPS receiver. FEES also validated the exploitation of IRIDIUM global network to receive data, testing and supporting on-board traditional radio transmissions, which allowed us to manage the mission without a direct link to ground station and receiving early notifications. Finally, we meant to test a low cost UHF receivers with advanced modulation protocols.

Moreover, the launch provided useful insight for the validation of system control architecture, for the qualification of a new generation of solar cells and for different transmissions protocols testing.

Are you a Radio Amateur? Follow us!

FEES is also a Radio Amateur mission! Find below all the information you need to listen to our beacon:

The default radio mode is LoRa. The satellite transmits 1 LoRa signal and 10 FSK signals with a cycle of 60 seconds (LoRa, wait 60 secs, FSK wait 60 secs.).

Modem parameters
- Frequency: 437200000 (437.2 MHz)
LoRa
- Modulation band width: 0
- Spreading factor (data rate): 9
- Error correction code rate: 1
- Preamble length: 5
- Symbol timeout: 5
- Symbol hop: 4
FSK
- Frequency deviation: 2500
- Data rate: 9600
- Modulation band width: 50000
- Expected preamble length: 3

Beacon decoding is available at this link.

Are you not a Radio Amateur or you still do not have an equipment? See our beacons on TinyGS and build your own ground station!

Our validation, your warranty

FEES was the first step in our technology validation. It enabled us to certify our systems, and it enabled our customer to trust solutions they can certainly rely on.