Eyesat-1 is an American experimental communications microsatellite with an store-dump payload. The mission of Eyesat-1 was experimental monitoring of mobile industrial equipment. Eyesat-1 has provided the National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationinSilver Spring, Maryland, with communication services to the South Pole. Eyesat-1 carries an FM repeater for Amateur Radio Research and Development Corporation (AMRAD) called AMRAD OSCAR 27orOSCAR 27.[2]
| Mission type | Amateur radio satellite |
|---|---|
| Operator | AMRAD |
| COSPAR ID | 1993-061C  |
| SATCAT no. | 22825[1] |
| Website | AO27.net |
| Mission duration | Elasped: 30 years, 9 months and 26 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Bus | Microsat |
| Manufacturer | Interferometrics Inc. |
| Launch mass | 11.8 kg (26 lb) |
| Dimensions | 15 cm × 15 cm × 15 cm (5.9 in × 5.9 in × 5.9 in) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 26 September 1993, 01:45 UTC[2] |
| Rocket | Ariane-40 V59 |
| Launch site | Kourou ELA-2 |
| Contractor | Arianespace |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Eccentricity | 0.00202[2] |
| Perigee altitude | 794 km (493 mi)[2] |
| Apogee altitude | 823 km (511 mi)[2] |
| Inclination | 98.5°[2] |
| Period | 101 minutes[2] |
| Epoch | 26 September 1993[2] |
|
← OSCAR 26
OSCAR 28 →
| |
Eyesat-1 was launched on September 26, 1993 using an Ariane 4 rocketatGuiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana, along with SPOT-3, Stella, Healthsat-2, KITSAT-2, Itamsat and PoSAT-1.
After 19 years of operation, the satellite suffered a bus failure on December 5, 2012. This failure caused the high-level software to lockup. Several years were spent trying to work around the problem, but a solution was not found.
In early 2020, the satellite was recovered by writing a new operating system in 80186 assembly that could work around the bus failure, and its FM repeater became intermittently operational.[3]
As of 19-April-2023 AO-27 is still working.[4]
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