May 2014 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

Space Hackers Prepare to Reboot 35-Year-Old Spacecraft (Long)
by Eric Rosenberg 21 May '14

21 May '14

This long piece comes from IEEE Spectrum http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/satellites/space-hackers-prepa… AMSAT-DL is mentioned throughout this piece. Dennis Wingo is KD4ETA. He has a blog http://denniswingo.wordpress.com/ Enjoy! 73, Eric W3DQ -------------------- Space Hackers Prepare to Reboot 35-Year-Old Spacecraft By Rachel Courtland Posted 15 May 2014 | 17:00 GMT Early next week, a team of volunteers will use the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to see if they can make contact with a spacecraft that hasn't fired its thrusters since 1987. If all goes well, the effort could bring the 35-year-old spacecraft, the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3<http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=ISEEICE> (ISEE-3), back into position near the Earth, where it could once again study the effect of solar weather on Earth's magnetosphere. It will be a race against time. ISEE-3, which is transmitting two carrier signals, only came into hearing range a couple of months ago<http://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/09/radio-amateurs-receive-nasa-isee-3ice-spacec…>. Dennis Wingo, CEO of California-based Skycorp Incorporated<http://www.skycorpinc.com/Skycorp/Home.html>, and his colleagues reckon ISEE-3 still has enough fuel to make it back to its original orbit at the Lagrangian point L1<http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/What_are_Lagrange_points>, at a spot between the sun and the Earth where a spacecraft can stay in sync with Earth's orbit. But to make it, Wingo says, the spacecraft must be commanded to fire its thrusters by mid-June. And that's far easier said than done. NASA no longer has the hardware to communicate with the ISEE-3. So in April, Wingo and Keith Cowing, a former NASA employee and editor of the websites NASAWatch <http://nasawatch.com/>and SpaceRef <http://www.spaceref.com/>, started a (still-running) crowdfunding campaign <http://www.rockethub.com/42228> on RocketHub to develop what they need to communicate and control the spacecraft: signal modulators and demodulators, transmitters, and a software-based mission control console to monitor the spacecraft's propulsion and attitude control systems. Building all of this even 10 years ago "would have been impossible," Wingo says. But with the advance of embedded systems technology, the team can construct radio components in software and debug them on aggressive timescales without breaking the bank. With no time to wait, the team has already purchased software-defined radio peripherals <https://www.ettus.com/product/details/UN210-KIT> built by Ettus Research, which can be used to implement modulator and demodulator programs that would once have had to be built in hardware. Ettus has volunteered to help with the programming, and one member of the company will join Wingo in Arecibo. They'll set to work there on 19 May, using a 400-watt transmitter shipped in from Germany to try to make contact with the spacecraft. One of the first things they'll do is command the spacecraft into engineering telemetry mode, where it's hoped it will send signals that will give the team a better sense of the condition of the spacecraft. Assuming ISEE-3 is in good health, Wingo says, the next big challenge will be to assess its trajectory for a proper thruster firing. The team will use transmitters and antennas at Arecibo, Morehead State University in Kentucky, the Bochum Observatory in Germany, and, potentially, the Allen Telescope Array in California, to ping the spacecraft. The hope is that the team will not only be able to measure Doppler shifts in frequency to get a fix on the spacecraft's velocity, but also signal time of flight to triangulate its position. This will be difficult, so even though the project met its fundraising goal on Wednesday, Wingo says the team is still seeking funds in case they must pay NASA to do the ranging for them. The reboot project schedule is aggressive. "We're in panic mode every day," Wingo says. "But I think we have a reasonable chance of making this work if the spacecraft is healthy." If the effort succeeds, it won't be the first time that ISEE-3 has had a change of course. After its launch in 1978, the spacecraft was repurposed (and renamed the International Cometary Explorer) in the early 1980s to chase Halley's Comet, then tasked again with performing solar observations in 1991 before mission cancellation in 1997. Although more capable spacecraft have since launched, recapturing ISEE-3 could give researchers access to a consistent set of instruments with which to compare old measurements of the Earth environment, Wingo says. The peak of this solar cycle is about half as active<http://www.solen.info/solar/images/comparison_recent_cycles.png>as the peak of solar cycle 21, which ISEE-3 observed. "[We can use the] same set of instruments to look and see what the differences are in Earth's magnetosphere," Wingo says. Most of ISEE-3's science instruments could still be in good working order, Wingo says, as well as the core command components of the spacecraft, which has no microprocessor and hence no memory to corrupt. If the team can get ISEE-3 to fire its thrusters by mid-June, the spacecraft will swing past the moon at an altitude of less than 50 kilometers on August 10. A few more engine firings could place it back at L1, where the spacecraft could potentially start collecting data by mid-September. If the plan works, Wingo says, the team hopes to have a website up where people can see the spacecraft's engineering telemetry and science data for themselves.

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WD9EWK & VA7EWK/3 QSOs from Hamvention weekend
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 21 May '14

21 May '14

Hi! I just finished updating my satellite log for my operating over the past few days in Ohio and other locations. I operated from the following locations during my trip (dates are using UTC time): Tilbury, Ontario (grid EN82sg), 15 May Indiana/Ohio state line (grid EM79ot), 17 and 19 May Englewood, Ohio (grid EM79uu), 17 May Trotwood, Ohio (Hamvention - grid EM79ut) - 18 May New Richmond, Ohio (grid EM78ux) - 18 May Hamersville, Ohio (grids EM78xw and EM88aw) - 18 and 19 May Miamisburg, Ohio (grid EM79vp) - 19 May I operated as WD9EWK for all locations except my first stop in Ontario, where I operated as VA7EWK/3. All of these QSOs are now in Logbook of the World, and I would be happy to send QSL cards for any QSOs made with WD9EWK or VA7EWK/3. Please e-mail me the QSO details, and - if you're in the log - I will send out the card(s). No need to first send me QSL cards or SASEs to get my card(s). If you use Logbook of the World and want to see QSLs for both sides of the Indiana/Ohio state line, please upload two QSO records to represent that QSO on each side of the state line. Put the same information in each record, except make the time different in each QSO record by at least one minute. Without this adjustment, one of the QSO records will replace the other, when LOTW sees two QSO records for the same date and time with the same station. LOTW can handle up to 4 grid locators in a single QSO record, but is not capable of handling multiple states (or provinces, counties, and countries) in a single QSO record. I have uploaded two QSO records to LOTW for each QSO I made at the state line, ensuring the QSO time in the record for each side of the state line differs by one minute. Some have also already uploaded two QSO records for each QSO completed with WD9EWK at the state line, and have received credit for QSOs with both Wayne County in Indiana and Preble County in Ohio (the two counties that come together at that point on the state line, near the I-70/US-40 interchange at Richmond IN). Please e-mail me directly if you worked me at this location, and need further assistance in seeing confirmations for both sides of the state line. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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some videos from 2014 Dayton Hamvention weekend
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 21 May '14

21 May '14

Hi! I just went through and uploaded the videos I made from last weekend's Dayton Hamvention. First, Paul N8HM working SO-50 on Friday (16 May) morning at 1431 UTC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Tz3Q54TDw Michael KD8QBA, part of the MO-76 ($50Sat, Eagle-2) team, was around the AMSAT demonstration station during several passes from his group's satellite. This video was one of those passes, Friday afternoon at 1638 UTC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ-yOrGShuw Back to Paul N8HM on the microphone, working AO-7 Friday afternoon at 2013 UTC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhPceiEpv8U Yes, it was raining hard Friday afternoon, which wiped out the audience watching this pass. This was a difficult pass to work, but Paul (and the rest of us braving the rain) stuck it out. My final video has Paul N8HM working AO-73 on Sunday (18 May 2014) afternoon at 1602 UTC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaWf_kgpvE8 The weather was much better on Sunday than earlier in the weekend. I know there are other videos on YouTube from the AMSAT station, including one where I'm working SO-50 during the 1345 UTC pass Sunday morning (thanks N8HM): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l26-wRO1pcU I have just uploaded my QSOs from this pass, and the other passes I worked on Sunday and Monday (19 May) at the Hamvention and other locations, to the Logbook of the World. The QSOs I made on Thursday (15 May) through Saturday have already been uploaded to LOTW. Paul N8HM uploaded a video of his Kenwood TH-D7 HT, showing the APRS traffic on 144.390 MHz on the Thursday (15 May) night in the Dayton area before the start of the Hamvention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4LtHWIjlNs This video is a perfect example of how the 144.390 MHz frequency was, during the entire weekend. Day or night, signals were being transmitted on that frequency non-stop. Edward Raybould N8OIF posted a couple of videos as well. First, a video where Keith W5IU is at the radio during an HO-68 pass to demonstrate the Doppler effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzCx0Uap8Wo Keith W5IU is working AO-73 on Saturday (17 May 2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwteyjKhGxw There may be others up there now, and more coming soon - including (I hope) videos from the AMSAT Forum on Saturday. :-) 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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Got Grids award
by wa4hfn＠comcast.net 20 May '14

20 May '14

Congrats to Rodney KC0ZHF for Got Grids ? award #5 Good job Rodney WA4HFN em55 Damon www.starcommgroup.org

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Minnesota Balloon launch Saturday 24 May trackers wanted!
by Chandler Heath 20 May '14

20 May '14

The students at Groveland Elementary School in Minnetonka, MN will be launching a HAB around 8:00 AM CDT. Landing zone to be determined. The balloon will have payload of an APRS beacon on 144.390 with callsign N0TOR-11. Reporting coordinates and temperatures. Updates will be posted to twitter handle #tornadochaser and all reports welcomed! Flight coordinator contact: convergx(a)gmail.com Landing zone to be determined

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W1AW/2- NY
by W2JV 20 May '14

20 May '14

Hello all, W1AW/2 representing NY state begins tonight at 0000Z or 8 PM, EDT., and will continue until 5/27, 2359 U. I will be operating as my work schedule allows and will post the daily times. SAT DATE TIME FO-29 5-21 00:01 U AO-73 5-21 02:03 U SO-50 5-21 20:17 U AO-7-B 5-21 20:50 U VO-52 5-21 22:54 U I will also be on 20M, SSB from 2-4 PM, on Thursday 5/22, thank you for participating. 73 Pete W2JV

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GRID MASTER award
by wa4hfn＠comcast.net 20 May '14

20 May '14

Star Comm Group has a new award Grid Master We announced the award at the Amsat Banquet Friday night and John K8YSE is the first to have work all 488 U.S. grids and confirm contacts on amateur satellites. Go to www.starcommgroup.org click the picture tab. Left to right John K8YSE Damon WA4HFN Rick WA4NVM also click the award tab to see the 1st Grid Master award. Star Comm Group encourages the use of the amateur satellites and Amsat NA. WA4HFN em55 Damon

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New US Satellite Export Reforms Gets Positive Response from Industry
by Eric Rosenberg 20 May '14

20 May '14

from Via Satellite. Enjoy! 73, Eric W3DQ Washington, DC --------------- New US Satellite Export Reforms Gets Positive Response from Industry By Caleb Henry | May 16, 2014 [Via Satellite 05-16-2014] After 15 years of restrictions and intense scrutiny, the United States Department of State has reclassified satellites and several related components so they will no longer be treated as weapons. The changes affect Category 15 of the U.S. Munitions List (USML), which covers spacecraft and related articles, by shifting most commercial, civil and scientific satellites and accompanying equipment to the Department of Commerce’s Commerce Control List (CCL). The satellite industry has called for reforms to these policies for a long time, citing lost revenue and missed opportunities internationally. Congress transferred satellites under the domain of International Traffic and Arms Regulations (ITAR) after a launch failure of the Chinese Long March 3B carrying a U.S. payload in 1996. With satellites treated as armaments, international trade suffered, and the industry atrophied. An estimated $21 billion in satellite revenue was lost from 1999 to 2009, according to the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). This was compounded by the loss of roughly 9,000 directly related jobs. The new revisions first remove most radiation-hardened microelectronic microcircuits, taking effect 45 days after publication of the rule. Communications satellites without classified components, remote sensing satellites with certain performance parameters, and other spacecraft parts not specifically identified in the revised category are cleared 180 days after publication. The U.S. government will, under certain conditions, allow CCL-classified satellites with some USML components to remain CCL-controlled. The reform is also intended to make it easier for the U.S. government to make use of hosted payloads on commercial satellites. Exports to China remain forbidden along with other select countries. “[The Satellite Industry Association] (SIA) congratulates the U.S. government on this truly comprehensive overhaul to the U.S. satellite export control system,” said Patricia Cooper, president of SIA. “With a more modern regulatory environment for exports in place, we look forward to unleashing the full force of American ingenuity and innovation at work in the international market.” The amendment to ITAR is part of President Barack Obama’s Export Control Reform (ECR) effort. With a few exceptions, items not subject to the export control jurisdiction of ITAR fall under the Department of Commerce’s less strict Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The CCL is included under EAR, which still imposes license requirements on exports, re-exports and retransfers, but with less stringency because they are no longer considered easily repurposed for military applications. The AIA applauded the reclassification, calling the previous restrictions “excessive,” and encouraged greater cooperation between Congress and the Obama administration to continue making U.S. companies more competitive internationally. The Department of State and the Department of Commerce published final rules facilitating the transfer of satellites and related components on May 13, 2014, but acknowledged the need for an interim period. “The Department [of State] has committed to reviewing during the six months after the publication of this rule whether further amendments to the USML controls on civil and commercial remote sensing satellites are warranted, and seeks additional public comment on this matter,” the agency said in a statement released by the Federal Register. Comments during the interim period close on June 27, 2014. The effective date is scheduled for Nov. 10, 2014.

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NASA TV Coverage of Next ISS Crew Launch
by Clint Bradford 20 May '14

20 May '14

NASA NEWS - NASA Television will broadcast prelaunch activities for the next three crew members flying to the International Space Station, followed by extensive live coverage of their launch and docking to the orbital laboratory Wednesday, May 28. Expedition 40/41 Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman of NASA, Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst KF5ONO of the European Space Agency will launch to the space station in a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:57 p.m. EDT (1:57 a.m. May 29, Baikonur time). NASA TV coverage begins at 3 p.m. and will include video of the prelaunch activities leading up to and including the crew members boarding their spacecraft. The crew is scheduled to dock to the station's Rassvet module less than six hours later, at 9:48 p.m. NASA TV coverage of docking begins at 9 p.m. Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos will greet the new crew when the hatches open at about 11:25 p.m. NASA TV hatch opening coverage begins at 11 p.m. Wiseman, Suraev and Gerst will remain aboard the station until mid-November. Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev will return to Earth in mid-September, leaving Suraev as Expedition 41 Commander. For the full schedule of Soyuz prelaunch, launch and docking coverage, as well as NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv For more information on the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station For b-roll and other media resources, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/stationnews -end-

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Thank you for the Artsat Invader QSL card
by andy thomas 20 May '14

20 May '14

To the ARTSAT team: Thank you so much for the Artsat Invader QSL card I received this morning (http://artsat.jp/invader_qsl_card) Please convey my special thanks to the artists naolkl lse and wataru kobara who designed the card. It is most beautiful, and I shall frame it and hang it next to my print by David Hockney. 73 de andy G0SFJ

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