Payload Camera
March 13, 2026
Author: Sian Friesen VE7TMF
We are excited to announce that the Payload Camera has been purchased, tested and integrated into the flightsat for MARMOSat. The RSSSA license has also been granted for this camera, authorizing its use as in orbit for capturing still images, and live video.
Camera in Protosat
The camera being used is a MVP Aerospace KISSCam V1, which communicates with the payload over RS485 and can be found at Products – MVP Aerospace. Using this camera, MARMOTSat will capture low resolution video of Earth to be downlinked in real time over a DVB-S2 video beacon on the 10 m band. This experimental mode will also broadcast various sample images and a MARMOTSat QSL card.
The KISSCam V1 is a flight heritage component which has been used on the RoseyCubesat and other satellites. The images shown below are from RoseyCubesat, taken at an altitude of approximately 500km. The images, in order, are taken of Italy, Corsica and Sardinia, Italy and Sicily, and over parts of Canada. Additional images can be found at Gallery – MVP Aerospace.
Initially, we were investigating using a Raspberry Pi Camera V2 which would communicate with the Payload over an MIPI-CSI2 interface. However, the EMI this interface produced and the HF DVB-S2 downlink data budget made a simpler, more robust, and flight-proven camera using a serial interface a better choice. The camera has been tested to ensure it is functioning as expected, one of those images can be seen below.
FOV representative photo - focus not yet implemented
As always, we’re grateful for the continued support from ARDC and the broader Amateur and CubeSat communities. Since the implementation and testing of the camera engineering and flight models into ProtoSat and FlightSat is completed, we move on to the next steps, including vibration testing and further integration. Updates on our progress will continue to be posted here.
