AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-180

The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor- mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.

The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor at amsat.org.

In this edition:

* AMSAT Symposium Events and Tours * W5PFG/P Activating DL79/DL89 Grids * Send Your Name to the Asteroid Bennu! * ARISS News

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-180.01 ANS-159 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 180.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. June 30, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-180.01

AMSAT Symposium Events and Tours

The AMSAT Symposium committee had a meeting this past weekend and made some decisions on tours that will be held in conjunction with the symposium.

Note that we will have two events scheduled Sunday morning (October 12)--the Area Coordinators Breakfast and the ARISS Operations Team Meeting.

Similar to last year's symposium, two opportunities for tours are planned for the 2014 Space Symposium:

1) On Sunday October 12 (Afternoon), several Small Group/Light Rail tours are being planned. Symposium participants can choose one of the following tours: Baltimore Inner Harbor Tour (including the Aquarium), the B&O Railroad Museum, Edgar Allen Poe House or the National Electronics Museum

2) On Columbus Day, Monday October 13 we will take a bus to the Washington Dulles airport area to tour the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum. Udvar Hazy is a phenomenal museum with hundreds of aircraft and spacecraft, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, SR-71, Enola Gay, and many others. The plan is to leave the hotel at 9 am and return around 4 pm.

In order to get maximum benefit from all the holiday weekend events, the symposium committee suggests that symposium participants consider scheduling their airline flights for no earlier than 6 pm on Monday October 13.

[ANS thanks the AMSAT Symposium Committee, for the above information]

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W5PFG/P Activating DL79/DL89 Grids

Clayton, W5PFG, has announced that he will be in the Big Bend area of Texas next week.

He will operate satellite passes as his schedule allows.

June 29 - Small potential for very late evening passes from DL89 June 30 thru July 1 - Random passes from DL79/89 July 2 - Potential morning passes from DL89, evening from DM80 July 3 - Morning passes from DM80, some evening passes from DM70 July 4 - Random passes from DM80

There will be no visit to DL88jx on this trip.

[ANS thanks Clayton, W5PFG, for the above information]

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Send Your Name to the Asteroid Bennu!

NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names to be etched on a microchip aboard a spacecraft headed to the asteroid Bennu in 2016.

The "Messages to Bennu!" microchip will travel to the asteroid aboard the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft. The robotic mission will spend more than two years at the asteroid, which has a width of approximately 1,760 feet (500 meters). The spacecraft will collect a sample of Bennu's surface and return it to Earth in a sample return capsule.

The deadline to submit names online is Sept. 30, 2014. Participants who submit their names to the "Messages to Bennu!" campaign will be able to print a certificate of appreciation to document their involvement.

For more information and to submit your name, visit http://planetary.org/bennu.

Participants who "follow" or "like" the mission on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/OSIRISREx) will receive updates on the location of their names in space from launch time until the asteroid samples return to Earth in 2023. Facebook fans also will receive mission progress and late-breaking news through regular status updates.

For more information about the OSIRIS-REx mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex and http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu.

Questions about this opportunity should be directed to [email protected].

[ANS thanks NASA Education Express Message -- June 12, 2014 for the above information]

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ARISS News

Scheduled contacts and events:

Ufa University, Ufa, Russia, direct via TBD Contact was successful Sat 2014-06-21 14:45 UTC (***)

An ARISS contact is planned Wednesday July 2, 2014 at 12:05:13 UTC, which is 14:05:13 CEST.

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst KF5ONO will answer questions from students at DLR Project Lab, Neustrelitz, Germany.

Signals from the ISS will be audible over Europe on 145.800 FM.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is one of Europe's largest and most modern research institutions. Here is where the aircraft of the future are being developed and pilots trained, rocket engines tested and images of distant planets analyzed. In addition, over 7,700 DLR staff members are investigating next-generation high-speed trains, environmentally responsible methods of generating energy, and much more ...

DLR_School_Lab Neustrelitz was opened in September 2011 at DLR in Neustrelitz in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Here is where the data from various satellites are received by means of large antennas, and subsequently processed. The student lab is available for visits of one or several days by school classes from this most northerly German state and further afield.

The contact will be conducted in German.

ARISS is requesting listener reports for the above contact. Due to issues with the Kenwood radio that are not fully understood at present, the Ericsson radio is going to be used for these contacts. ARISS thanks everyone in advance for their assistance. Feel free to send your reports to aj9n at amsat.org or aj9n at aol.com.

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From 2014-11-10 to 2014-12-07, ARISS will be going into a period of no contacts as there will be no hams onboard.

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ARISS congratulations the following mentors who have now mentored over 100 schools:

Gaston ON4WF with 117 Satoshi 7M3TJZ with 102 Francesco IKØWGF with 101

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Expedition 39/40 on orbit Steve Swanson Aleksander Skvortsov Oleg Artemyev

Expedition 40/41 on orbit Maxim Suraev Gregory Wiseman KF5LKT Alexander Gerst KF5ONO

ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, JAXA, and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.

ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers onboard the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology and learning.

[ANS thanks Charlie, AJ9N, for the above information]

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In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi- tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office.

Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu- dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status. Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership information.

73, This week's ANS Editor, Lee McLamb, KU4OS ku4os at amsat dot org