Po dłuższej przerwie wracam na bloga z dość obszernym, ale także – mam nadzieję – interesującym wpisem na temat… kosmicznych zdjęć. Opowiem Wam o fotografiach szczególnych, bo wykonanych w kosmosie przez polskie satelity i instrumenty optyczne made in Poland, działające za umowną granicą przestrzeni kosmicznej, czyli ponad linią Kármána. Przejdziemy sobie przy okazji przez niektóre ciekawe rodzime projekty z ostatnich lat i podywagujemy nad ich losami. Od ostatniego tekstu o polskich satelitach sporo się bowiem pozmieniało... read more

Interesujesz się fotografią analogową, ale nie masz warunków lub wyposażenia, aby wywoływać zdjęcia w domu? Chciał(a)byś stworzyć niezwykłą, solarną fotografię, na której uwieczni się wiele śladów przelotów słonecznych? I, co najważniejsze, masz w zapasie… nieskończone pokłady cierpliwości? Trzy razy TAK? Zaczynajmy więc! Na początek pytanie: dlaczego solarigrafia jest taka wyjątkowa? Nie wykorzystujemy w niej klasycznego materiału światłoczułego (tzn. kliszy), tylko czarno-białego papieru fotograficznego do odbitek. I, co najważniejsze – bez obróbki chemicznej... read more

Have you ever wanted to see a far-away volcanic eruption’s effect on the Earth’s atmosphere from your own house? After the Hunga Tonga volcano eruption on the 15th of January this year, not only the shockwave circled the globe afterwards, but also numerous photos of data from home weather stations with graphs clearly showing a sudden change in pressure. I’ve always wanted to create a small DIY meteo station but that was the moment I decided – time to open KiCad... read more

The day has come. KRAKsat burned during a reentry yesterday. This cute but unsuccessful CubeSat, which I had the privilege to work on, started its space adventure on the 17th of April 2019 with the launch of the Antares rocket NG-11 mission. After the flight, it waited almost 3 months to be released from the International Space Station, and when the deployment finally took place, it turned out that the satellite was… silent. I would like to tell you a few interesting facts and statistics about satellites’ deorbit overall, at the same time paying tribute to the small cube that has just burned during the tragic yet inevitable attempt to come back... read more

Okay, you’ve got your marvelous antenna shining in the morning sun. Beautiful and brand new ground station, maybe even connected to the SatNOGs network, stands proudly in your backyard (or hangs from the balcony of a multi-family block of flats). Everything seems fine, except… it’s not perfect when it comes to satellites’ reception. The signal is barely visible and you can only dream about its demodulation. Why? Is there anything you can do to improve it? The answer is: probably yes. LNA and filter to the rescue!... read more

The article you are going to read now may seem like the “typical” text from my blog (if there even is this kind of thing), but my second rendezvous with one of the most incredible pieces of space junk that can be found in this part of Europe could not pass by just like that. So – tune your receivers – instead of satellites, we are going to talk eastern space technologies today! I’m gonna start with a glimpse into some personal stuff. I have always been in love with space shuttles... read more

How not to kill your new shiny satellite when it’s already in space? Does the mission end with the launch or is it just a beginning? Is the beacon even important? A lot of statistics and charts, few interesting facts about some failed CubeSats missions and, what's the most important, seven crucial reasons why shouldn't we delay the communication with our satellite. Waiting two weeks after the deployment to make the first contact is not the best idea, guys! Based on the true story™.... read more

W tytule tego wpisu kryje się pewnego rodzaju ironia. Właściwie cały pomysł na poszukiwania, o których zaraz przeczytacie, zaczął się od delikatnego uśmiechu na widok któregoś z kolei artykułu w krajowych mediach nieprawidłowo nazywającego Światowida pierwszym polskim satelitą (gubiąc gdzieś przymiotnik "komercyjnym"). Swoją drogą, nawet z uwzględnieniem tego przymiotnika, sensowność takiego sformułowania także można podważyć - na podobnej zasadzie moglibyśmy szczycić się "pierwszym polskim 2-kilogramowym satelitą", "pierwszym polskim satelitą z Torunia" albo "pierwszym polskim satelitą w kształcie ogórka". Możliwości są niezliczone... read more

Today we are all here to talk about the most intriguing topic in the world. About the invisible force that is always around us... About the energy that lets us communicate on ridiculously long distances using just a metal stick… About the magical steam without which any space mission would not be possible... Radio waves! In the first part of this article you can find a tutorial how to build your turnstile antenna for 435.500 Mhz, while in the second part we will answer the most important question: why should you even build an antenna. Enjoy!... read more

As satellites are lately my main interest and definitely the thing that my life circles around the most, there will probably be a lot of posts here about this topic. I'd love to keep them substantive and informative, but, at the same time, include as many authentic experiences as possible. The examples will be primarily based on PW-Sat2 and KRAKsat cases, as I had a possibility to be included in both of these amazing projects. What can you expect from this text? Mostly some technical (but practical) knowledge about satellite’s orbits and a few random interesting facts that were confirmed during both missions... read more

During the two-week Analog Astronaut Orpheus 11 mission in the LunAres Research Station we managed to build the working receiving ground station inside the habitat and listen to some amateur-band satellite transmission. The station included the Raspberry Pi with SatNOGS demodulation software and a habitat-made Yagi-Uda antenna that was constructed from basic materials that we had available in the research station. After connecting it to the SatNOGS network we were positively surprised that it… works! You can read the whole story here... read more

Yesterday I left LunAres Research Station after a 2-week Analog Astronaut mission Orpheus 11. It was an extraordinary experience - together with the crew we spend fourteen days of isolation in the old nuclear bunker transformed into the analog habitat base, conducting scientific experiments and space-focused projects. We had an indoor EVA area and had a possibility to test ourselves and our tools prototypes on the simulated Moon area, which really changed our perception of real astronauts' issues and problems. As I got a lot of questions about the various aspects of this mission, I decided to create this post with some answers inside... read more