ERMINAZ is a PocketQube amateur-radio programme led by AMSAT-DL in collaboration with AMSAT-EA and Libre Space Foundation, with support from Rocket Factory Augsburg and ESERO-Germany / Bochum Observatory. The AMSAT-DL satellites reuse the LSF-developed QUBIK 1P PocketQube bus and communications system, as documented in Daniel Estévez’s ERMINAZ-1 decoding write-up.
What LSF does
LSF contributes the PocketQube bus heritage (QUBIK-derived structure, EPS, UHF COMMS, OBC and flight software), the OSDLP-based telemetry stack used across the AMSAT-DL satellites, and flies its own SIDLOC-PQ-1 and SIDLOC-PQ-2 payloads inside the ERMINAZ-1 manifest for SIDLOC identification experiments on 401.500 MHz. Integration and imaging work has been carried out at LSF Athens.
Where we’re going
Demonstrate fully open-source, reusable PocketQube amateur-radio platforms (CW beacon, CCSDS telemetry, SSDV image downlink, digipeater, store-and-forward mailbox) accessible to radio amateurs worldwide, and extend the open-hardware PocketQube deployer supply line to additional launch opportunities.
Where the project stands
Per the AMSAT-DL ERMINAZ overview:
- ERMINAZ-1 (ERMINAZ-1U / -1V / -1X plus AMSAT-EA’s UNNE-1/HADES-E and MARIA-G/HADES-F and LSF’s SIDLOC-PQ-1 / -2) is to fly on the maiden flight of RFA ONE from SaxaVord Spaceport, no earlier than mid-2026, into a ~500 km SSO at 97.6°. The satellites are dispensed from a PICOBUS deployer. IARU coordination serial 968; ITU filing API/A/13684.
- ERMINAZ-2 (ERMINAZ-2U / -2V / -2X) is manifested on SpaceX Transporter-17 for Q2 2026 into a ~500–600 km SSO. IARU coordination serial 1014.
Ground reception of early test transmissions (SSDV images under callsign DP0SAT, 9600 baud GFSK at 3 kHz deviation) has been demonstrated and written up by Daniel Estévez, with a decoder merged into gr-satellites.
Milestones
- 2024-02 — ERMINAZ manifest for RFA ONE announced via SaxaVord Spaceport
- 2024-06 — First SSDV images from ERMINAZ-1 test transmissions decoded and published by Daniel Estévez
- 2026 Q2 — ERMINAZ-2U / -2V / -2X scheduled on SpaceX Transporter-17
- 2026 (NET mid-year) — ERMINAZ-1 triplet scheduled on RFA ONE maiden flight from SaxaVord
Links
- AMSAT-DL ERMINAZ overview
- AMSAT-DL ERMINAZ GitLab
- AMSAT-UK ERMINAZ coverage
- Daniel Estévez — Decoding ERMINAZ
License
Open-source across partners; LSF-contributed hardware lineage inherits from QUBIK (CERN-OHL-S v2) and SIDLOC (CERN-OHL / GPL-3.0).