Japan’s LED-set cubesat will flash Morse code from space

We reported earlier about the tiny Japanese satellite termed ‘FITSAT-1‘ by the researchers. This palm-sized satellite was earlier carried to the International Space Station. The original plan was to release FITSAT-1 to orbit the Earth and flash Morse code in the sky so that it would be visible in Japan.

However, now the researchers have decided that the small satellite would be allowed to orbit around the Earth and flash its Morse code so that it would be visible around the globe.According to Takushi Tanaka, who is a professor at the Fukuoha Institute of Technology, “Requests came from far more people than I expected—a man in Silicon Valley wanted to see it while another man wanted us to flash it over Central Park in New York.”

It was this that persuaded the researchers to let the 10-cm cube orbit the entire planet and flash Morse code message from the sky so that people around the world can see it. Although the experiment itself wouldn’t yield much, researchers intend to see how effective its Morse code communications, something which can be put to numerous future uses such as sending emergency warnings when conventional communication mediums are disrupted, for instance in the wake of a natural disaster.

Image Courtesy: Fukuoka Institute of Technology and and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Salman Latif
Categories: General
Tags: Space