Microchip Engineers Built Amateur Satellite That Deploys From International Space Station

Microchip Engineers Built Amateur Satellite That Deploys From International Space Station

Satellite Design Team Launches Blog About Project;Deployment to be Broadcast Live on NASA TV and Online

CHANDLER, Ariz., Aug. 2, 2011 [NASDAQ: MCHP] — Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions, today announced that a volunteer team of Microchip engineers spent nearly four years working on nights and weekends to develop the ARISSat-1 amateur satellite. Their hard work will come to fruition tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. (Pacific Time), when the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled to deploy the satellite during a spacewalk.

The deployment will be broadcast live on NASA TV and online at http://www.microchip.com/get/6J8J. Additionally, ARISSat-1 design-team leader Steve Bible launched the limited-series Chips in Space Blog last week, to both educate and entertain readers by relating the story of how he and his colleagues came to build the satellite, and the challenges they ran into along the way. Bible will also provide analysis of the satellite’s deployment and functionality.

ARISSat-1 is the prototype test flight for a proposed series of educational satellites being developed in a partnership with the Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT), the NASA Office of Education ISS National Lab Project, the Amateur Radio on ISS (ARISS) working group and RSC-Energia. If all goes well with tomorrow’s deployment, it will perform the following primary functions:

Two-way communication via UHF uplink and VHF downlink, for use by ham radio operatorsVisuals of space from four camerasRecharging of the satellite’s battery using solar panels, enabling operation for monthsTransmission of audio greetings in many languages, for reception via simple radios or scannersTelemetry transmissions with updates on the health of the satelliteHouse an experiment from Russia’s Kursk University that measures atmospheric pressure

Follow the Chips in Space Blog over the next several weeks, to learn more about how this satellite was built and how well it performs in the vacuum of space: http://www.microchip.com/get/K3TC

Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP) is a leading provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions, providing low-risk product development, lower total system cost and faster time to market for thousands of diverse customer applications worldwide. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Microchip offers outstanding technical support along with dependable delivery and quality. For more information, visit the Microchip website at http://www.microchip.com/get/Q506.

■