| UoSAT-1 | |
| Mission Type: | OSCAR |
| Operator: | University of Surrey |
| Cospar Id: | 1981-100B |
| Satcat: | 12888 |
| Launch Mass: | 54kg (119lb) |
| Launch Date: | UTC |
| Launch Rocket: | Delta 2310 D-157 |
| Launch Site: | Vandenberg SLC-2W |
| Orbit Reference: | Geocentric |
| Orbit Regime: | Low Earth |
| Orbit Inclination: | 97.6° |
| Orbit Period: | 92 minutes |
| Apsis: | gee |
| Programme: | OSCAR |
| Previous Mission: | OSCAR 8 |
| Next Mission: | OSCAR 10 |
UoSAT-1, also known as UoSAT-OSCAR 9 (UO-9), was a British amateur radio satellite which orbited Earth. It was built at the University of Surrey and launched into low Earth orbit on 6 October 1981. It exceeded its anticipated two-year orbital lifespan by six years, having received signals on 13 October 1989,[1] before re-entering the atmosphere.
This was the first of several UoSAT satellites; followed by UoSAT-2.
Like its successor UoSAT-2 it carried a CCD camera and a Digitalker speech synthesiser,[2] and transmitted telemetry data on a 145.826 MHz beacon at 1200 baud using asynchronous AFSK.[3]
The Astrid package sold by British firm MM Microwave,[4] consisting of a fixed frequency VHF receiver set and software for the BBC Micro, could display the telemetry frames from either UoSAT-1 or UoSAT-2.[2] UoSAT-1's solar arrays were of an experimental design reused for UoSAT-2.[2]
The primary computer for the satellite was the RCA 1802 microprocessor.[5] A secondary microprocessor was also employed, the "F100L" (a Ferranti 16-bit processor). Memory was 16K of DRAM.