Mini-satellite to flash code from space

TOKYO — A palm-sized Japanese satellite in orbit around Earth will flash a Morse code message that will be visible around the world from next month. Researchers hope the satellite, measuring 10 centimeters cubed and launched from the International Space Station, will become the first orbiter to transmit an LED message across the night sky.

The message was originally intended to be seen just in Japan, but people around the world have asked for the satellite to communicate when it overflies them. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters of the alphabet and is commonly understood across the world as a way of transmitting pieces of text.

The professor said his team would try their best to accommodate requests but warned being able to see the Morse code message would be largely dependent on the weather. The message it will send is “Hi this is Niwaka Japan.” Niwaka is the satellite’s nickname and reflects a play on words in the local dialect of southwestern Japan.

Besides transmitting its LED message, the camera-equipped satellite will also take images of Earth and send them to a base station in an experiment on high-speed data transmissions. The solar-powered device was released from the International Space Station 390 kilometers above Earth and is now in a regular orbit.
Specific timings and locations will be announced later on the institute’s website in Japanese and English.