Development and operations of nano-satellite FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA)

• The cubeSat FITSAT-1 was deployed from International Space Station for the first time.
• We succeeded to receive pictures from FITSAT-1 with high speed transmission of 5.8 GHz.
• We could receive LED-light from FITSAT-1 which twinkles as an artificial star.
• We discovered that the FITSAT-1 rotation speed gradually increased from stored data.

FITSAT-1 (NIWAKA) is a 10 cm3 satellite that was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on October 5, 2012. It continued to operate until its orbit decayed on July 4, 2013. The main FITSAT-1 mission was to demonstrate a high speed transmitter module developed by our group (115.2 kbps, 5.84 GHz, FSK, 2 W RF output). Each of the JPEG VGA image (640×480 pixels) taken at the time of deployment was received in 2–6 s. The second mission was to make the satellite twinkle as an “artificial star” using high-output LEDs and investigate the possibility of visible light communication between the satellite and the ground. This light from the satellite was photographed in many places. Our FITSAT team succeeded in acquiring the light signal using a photomultiplier attached to a telescope. Moreover, we discovered that the FITSAT-1 rotation speed gradually increased.