{"id":459954,"date":"2018-04-05T16:32:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T20:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amsat-uk.org\/?p=32074"},"modified":"2018-04-05T16:32:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T20:32:55","slug":"end-of-mission-for-picsat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=459954","title":{"rendered":"End of mission for PicSat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Artist's<\/a><\/p>\n

Artist’s impression of PicSat in space<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

PicSat, launched January 12, carried an amateur radio FM transponder. Unfortunately following a loss of communications in March the team has had to announce the end of the mission.<\/p>\n

On the afternoon of Tuesday, March 20, 2018 PicSat suddenly fell silent, after two successful morning passes over Europe. Attempts to re-establish contact have failed, nothing has been heard from the satellite, no sign of life.<\/p>\n

There was a short-lived hope that PicSat was heard on Friday, March 30 by radio amateurs at the Morehead State University, but the faint signal heard turned out to be another satellite TIGRISAT.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, April 5, 2018, the team decided to call mission-closed. A \u201cpot\u201d (French for party \/ drink) was organised at noon at the Paris Observatory in Meudon. Sylvestre Lacour gave a short speech. Four radio amateurs who have been PicSat fans and great supporters joined in via a dedicated Google Hangout.<\/p>\n

The team will continue to try to understand what went awry, while plans for new projects are being made. PicSat was operational for over 10 weeks. From a technological point of view it has been a success for the LESIA laboratory of the Paris Observatory \u2013 PSL, for whom PicSat has been the very first nano-satellite complete built and operated in-house. This experience will open doors for new nano-satellite projects in the (near) future.<\/p>\n

Watch Bye Bye PicSat (for now)
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