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There will be a hidden treat for the geocachers in WISA Woodsat: a Travel Bug. It will be third in space and first for a CubeSat.

WISA Woodsat's mission is testing and studying plywood in harsh conditions of space, but there will be something fun as well: an ultimate Travel Bug (TB9GB8G) for the geocachers. The tracking code will be hidden in the pictures the satellite will take with its selfie camera.

So, at the same time when trying to track colour changes or cracks in the plywood, you can try to find this code.

Geocaching is a popular real-life adventure game where the players use a mobile app or a GPS device to find hidden items. The basic idea is that players set up small containers called geocaches all over the world and share the locations of these caches for other players.

However, the location is not always the only key to finding a geocache as it might be hidden in plain sight. A geocache might look like a rock, street sign or an extra bolt on a bridge adding more challenge to the game.  Once found, the players verify their find by signing the log of the cache.

The Geocaching game also includes items called Travel Bugs, which travel from cache to cache carried by the players according to the stated mission of the individual Travel Bug. As the Travel Bugs do not have logbooks, the players can log the Travel Bug as “seen” with a special code printed on the bug.

There are already now two space-faring Travel Bugs, one at the International Space Station, and another one on the surface of Mars, hidden in the Perseverance rover.

In the case of WISA Woodsat’s Travel Bug, the secret code will be visible on images taken by the satellite itself – if you know what you are looking for.

If you're a current or future geocacher, add TB9GB8G to your Watch list to be notified with the very latest information!