WEOS (Kanta Kun)

WEOS [Chiba IoT]

The WEOS (Whale Ecology Observation Satellite) project by Chiba Institute of Technology Japan won the IEIC Satellite Design Contest in 1993, and is subsequently being implemented. The satellite was launched as a piggyback payload on a H-2A-202 in 2002 into a LEO polar orbit. The spacecraft tracks whales using attached transponders which carries a data recorder for GPS position, sea temperature and depth. Data is transferred when the whale surfaces and the spacecraft is overhead. The spacecraft weighs 50 kg, and is a 50 cm cube. It carries an S-band antenna for TT&C, UHF antenna (near 400 MHz) for the link with the probe(s), and employs a 3 m gravity gradient boom to maintain Earth facing orientation.