aimsat-mx

One of the most amazing events in contemporary history was the launch of the first human-made satellite, the Sputnik-1. Early satellite radio amateurs could remember and identify the characteristic sound it made. Nowadays we live in a world where satellites are an everyday commodity, there are thousands of them orbiting the skies, sending back to Earth all kind of data: from live images of the atmosphere or from the deep-space, to data from their on-board experiments with live info of their results; however we are no longer existed in listening them.

AimSAT MX tries to bring back that excitement of listening satellites by directing people how to listen to them in an easy-to-understand format with instructions on what kind of equipment you need, and how to point your antenna, with helpful mobile apps in Android an iOS, when a Low Earth Orbit Satellite passes across the sky.

How is it done?

First of all, AimSAT MX points you on what equipment is needed if you want to listen to Low Earth Satellites. It gives you a brief description of what you will expect to listen, what kind of antennas are needed and what software is required if you want to learn what the Satellite has to say.

Then it gives you an mobile application (for iOS and Android) that helps you point your antenna in the direction of the satellite. It is important to remember that Low Earth Orbit satellites crossthe sky in less than 15 minutes. AimSAT app helps you with that by updating the real-time position of the satellite and pointing you with helpful sounds in the correct direction.

What do we aim?

AimSAT MX 'aims' for a new generation of "satellite listeners" and tries to be the foundation to build low-cost automated systems for a Satellite Monitor Network.

Our goals

In the sort term we should:

• Build a public API to retrive satellites, passes over a location and directions to the satellite for a specific pass
• Polish and publish our Android an iOS apps
• Build more documentation on how to DIY your antena and use cheap SDR dongles

In the middle term (6 months) we are going to:

• Host at least 3 public events and 3 school events to listen satellites and build equipment
• Start building a local community around satellite listening

And in the long term we aim to:

• Have a strong local community about satellite listening
• Build an international community around satellite listening
• Have some DIY equiment to automatic monitor satellites
• Link users and institutions to share automatic equipment and resources to monitor satellites

Project Information

Resources