SACRED

To listen to SACRED if it had made orbit, a person would have needed the following:

1. The keplerian elements, in order to know where the satellite is pointed.
2. A radio capable of operating on 436.870 MHz, which will change with doppler shifting.
3. A 1200 baud AFSK modem, preferably a very low-end, that does no modulation on its own. Cubesat Groundstation uses a custom-built hardware modem, and possibly a software modem (using the sound card as an Analog-to-Digital converter).
4. The UA Cubesat GS software would help, however, it is not currently available to the public.
5. A good antenna system, the design of the antennas is not optimal.

SACRED had the following components included:

• 6 solar cells
• Aluminum frame - built to spin-stabilize through sunlight
• Power board (used to hold batteries, maintain 5V and 3.3V charges, measure voltages and currents in several spots, and convert the power from the solar cells to usable power.)
• Microcontroller board, which is used to gather and transmit telemetry.
• Radio board, which is used for 2 way communication
• Experiment - A radiation experiment, which will monitor the radiation effect on several components over long periods of time.

These specifications are without respect to the payload.

• Dimensions - 10 cm×10 cm×10 cm
• Mass - max 1 kg (Actual ~900 gram)
• Power Generation - Optimum ~2 W, average on sun side ~1.5 W
• Max power output - 3W when transmitting data
• Min power output - 100 mW when in quiet state

SACRED was launched with UA's satellite, Rincon 1 on July 26, 2006, at 19:43 UTC on board a Dnepr rocket. The launch failed shortly after takeoff and SACRED was destroyed.