The first ALMASat (ALma MAter SATellite) demonstration mission is due for launch in the February of 2012 on board the VEGA Maiden Flight in Kourou, French Guyana. Among the possible future applications, there is the use of an enhanced ALMASat bus for a microsatellite Earth Observation mission (ALMASat-EO), recently funded by the Italian Ministry of Research (MiUR). As a first step, a fully automated amateur radio ground station has been designed and installed in the faculty labs and is operational since September 2003. Read more