Satellite Hunter Team Project

To catch the satellites which are just launched is very difficult, because orbit information is not decided and try and error is necessary. However, satellites in LEO have only short pass time. This makes difficult to gain the enough data for decision and it takes many days. The Ground Station Network is very useful in early operation of the satellite. At first, each ground station tracks the satellite using different orbit infomation. Operators of the satellite obtain necessary datas from operation result at many ground stations and they can quickly find the true information.

In 2003, operators of XI-IV cubesat needed more than a week to find the true orbit information. In 2005, operators of XI-V needed only a couple of day with co-operation of 5 ground stations. In addition, operators are much encouraged by receiver's successfull report from many station.

In Japan, ground stations work together at the satellite launch. The team was called "Satellite Hunter Team" and they shares the received data and operation result and makes grate contribute for the early satellite operation.