Please make a donation to support Gunter's Space Page.
Thank you very much for visiting Gunter's Space Page. I hope that this site is useful and informative for you.
If you appreciate the information provided on this site, please consider supporting my work by making a simple and secure donation via PayPal. Please help to run the website and keep everything free of charge. Thank you very much.

Arsene (AO 24, Arsene-OSCAR 24)

Arsene (OSCAR 24) [CNES]

Arsene (Ariane Radio-Amateur Satellite Enseignement Espace) was designed and built by the French space agency CNES's radio amateur group (RACE), and was launched by the Ariane-42L H10 V56 launcher alongside Astra 1C, a TV satellite, into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) (223 × 36075 km, 5°) on the 12th May 1993 00:56:32 GMT.

The spacecraft carried a VHF/UHF and a UHF/S-band transponder. The hexagonical cylinder which measures 785 mm in diameter and weighs 154 kg (74 kg propellant); at that time the largest amateur satellite launched. GaAs solar panels were used provided by the Italian space agancy (ASI).

Following launch it was found that the VHF uplink receiver had stopped functioning, and the french DGE 10 m dish station at CEM near Toulon was made available. It allowed the mission to be recovered using UHF uplink and S-band downlink to fire the SEP Mars apogee kick-motor (15 kN thrust) on the 13th orbit placing it into a 17,200 × 36,830 km orbit.

The spacecraft was used by amateur across the world, but suffered finally stopped functioning on the 6th September 1993 with a UHF uplink failure and two days later with a failure of the remaining S-band downlink. It is postulated that the VHF receiver failed due to a cable break at the low-noise amplifier, and that the S-band downlink failed due to overheating.

Nation: France
Type / Application: Amateur radio communication
Operator: RACE
Contractors: RACE
Equipment: 1 VHF/UHF, 1 UHF/S-band transponder
Configuration:
Propulsion: Mars AKM
Power: Solar cells, batteries
Lifetime:
Mass: 154 kg
Orbit: 17185 km × 36866 km, 1.12°
Satellite COSPAR Date LS Launch Vehicle Remarks
Arsene (Arsene-OSCAR 24, AO 24) 1993-031B 12.05.1993 Ko ELA-2 Ariane-42L H10 with Astra 1C

References:

Cite this page: