AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-223

************************************************************** *** 2008 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting *** *** October 24-26 in Atlanta, Georgia *** **************************************************************

ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS 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.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:

ans-editor@amsat.org

In this edition: * Falcon-1 Launch Failure * THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER ON AUGUST 12 * "Nanosputnik" Cubesat "Polar Lights" * ARISS Status - August 4, 2008 * Satellite Shorts * AMSAT-UK Colloqium

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.01 Falcon-1 Launch Failure

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 223.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. Augugst 10, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-223.01

SpaceX's Falcon-1 rocket lifted off from the Kwajalein atoll on 03 August 2008 at 0334 UTC. On board was the Trailblazer satellite for the Jumpstart Program of the United States Department of Defense’s Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS). Also on board where two triple-cubesats, PRESAT & NANOSAIL-D, from NASA which had beacons in the amateur 70cm band.

Unfortunately, an anomaly occured approximately 2 minutes 20 seconds into the flight. The engineers said the rocket stages did not separate and the second stage did not ignite.

SpaceX has announced that the problem with the last launch was that the first stage regenerative engine continued burning longer than they expected. It therefore bumped into the second stage after separation. A new downward looking video that includes this action is available at:

http://mfile.akamai.com/22165/wmv/spacex.download.akamai.com/22165/F1-003.as...

[ANS thanks SpaceX and Bruce, VE9QRP, for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.02 THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER ON AUGUST 12

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 223.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. Augugst 10, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-223.02

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER ON AUGUST 12

Meteor scatter enthusiasts attention. The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, August 12th. The best time to see them and make contact by bouncing signals off their ionized tails is during the dark hours before dawn on Tuesday morning when forecasters expect 50 to 100 meteors per hour.

The source of the Perseids is Comet Swift-Tuttle, which has littered the August portion of Earth's orbit with space dust. The dusty zone is broad and Earth is already in its outskirts. As a result, even before the peak on August 12th, you may see some "early Perseids" streaking across the night sky. (VHF Reflector)

[ANS thanks ARRL for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.03 "Nanosputnik" Cubesat "Polar Lights"

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 223.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. Augugst 10, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-223.03

I am asked by Alexander Zaitev RW3DZ of the Izmiran Institute, in Troitsk outside Moscow, Russia, to publicise his proposed "Nanosputnik" Cubesat "Polar Lights."

FYI the Izmiran Institute made the first spaceborne magnetometer, on Sputnik-3 in 1958. It is at:

http://www.izmiran.ru

RW3DZ recently referred to the Nanosputnik Cubesat in a blog at:

http://www.vhfdx.ru/sputnikovaya-svyaz/50-let-kosmicheskoy-eryi

and on his website at

http://rk3dxb.narod.ru/polar_lights.html

He is establishing a team within the promotion of amateur radio to young people around the RK3DKB club shack at Troitsk. John G7HIA and I were welcomed there last Sunday.

The Nanosputnik is proposed to be built on a 10cm Cubesat frame and to weigh 1 Kg. Command uplink will be in 2 metres and data downlink at various data rates in 70cms, there are precise frequencies given but it is probably unwise for me to give them out at this stage as the satellite is not built yet and I do not know whether IARU frequency coordination has been undertaken. There may be an experimental 5 GHz beacon.

The proposed payload is a unique magnetometer which will detect fluctuations along the flux lines of the magnetosphere and will be oriented along the flux lines within 1 degree by an on-board GLONASS/GPS.

Data sampling will be 1 observation/second and he is interested in downloading every quarter orbit into the GENSO network.

There is also scope for a CCD camera and cosmic ray detector.

Orbital life is estimated as 3 years with rechargeable batteries and a solar panel charging system.

I do not have any information about launch opportunities.

John G7HIA and I will continue to work with RW3DZ and will bring any other information we have to this bb as we get it, although we are not responsible for this Nanosputnik in any way whatsoever.

[ANS thanks Andy, G0SFJ for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.04 ARISS Status - August 4, 2008

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 223.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 10, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-223.04

1. Upcoming School Contacts

Two simulated Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contacts are scheduled for Tuesday, August 5 with U.S. deployed soldier dependents visiting Euro Space Camp (ESC) in Belgium. These training sessions are terrestrial-based amateur radio contacts using ARISS-equivalent equipment. There will be EchoLink and IRLP coverage of both contacts.

• The first simulated contact is scheduled with Koichi Wakata, KC5ZTA, at approximately 14:20 UTC. • The second simulated contact will take place with astronaut Soichi Noguchi, KD5TVP, at approximately 14:50 UTC.

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact has been scheduled with Town of Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, Summer Playground Camp on Wednesday, August 13 at 16:08 UTC. The New Providence Amateur Radio Club has been involved with this camp for the last four years. It has provided an introduction to ham radio on the air by setting up HF and VHF stations and having the campers communicate with hams around the world. The ARISS contact will be an extension of this activity.

2. United Space School Contact Successful

An international group of high school students attending United Space School in Seabrook, Texas experienced an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact on Thursday, July 31. Telebridge station ON4ISS in Belgium facilitated the contact. Twelve students had16 questions answered by astronaut Greg Chamitoff, KD5PKZ. The audio for this event was fed into the EchoLink AMSAT (101 377) server, receiving 10 connections and it was also fed into the JK1ZRW (277 208) server.

3. ARISS Meetings Held

The annual Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Face to Face Meeting was held in Moscow on July 17-18. Status reports were given by all committees and the election of officers was held. This meeting was preceded by the first Amateur Radio Working Group (ARWG) conference and was followed by a Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) on July 21-23 where discussions covered SuitSat-2 and ARISS hardware. A final meeting was held at the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Centre (GCTC) to discuss astronaut training on the ARISS equipment. All meetings were successful, much was accomplished and minutes will be available in the near future.

4. NASA Posts ARISS Article to Web Site

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) article has been written and posted to NASA Web sites. Several ARISS members were interviewed for the story, including astronaut Bill McArthur, KC5ACR. “Communication From Space Inspires Young Minds” may be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/behindscenes/index.html (and on the Kennedy site http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/index.html under "Features").

[ANS thanks Carol, KB3LKI, for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.05 Satellite Shorts

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 223.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 10, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-223.05

Satellite Shorts From All Over

+ Congratulations are in order for Rafael, XE2RV on attaining VUCC number 164 in satellite mode.

+ John, KD6PAG will be in Scotland from 13 August - 2 September, with 16 August - 21 August 08 in the Shetland Islands. He'll primarily be trying to work the eastern Canada and northeastern parts of the US via satellite. He'll include European passes time permitting. John will be running QRP with a portable antenna similar to an Arrow antenna.

+ The Mid-Atlantic States VHF Conference on Saturday September 27 in Blue Bell, PA will include a presentation by Bob, N4HY to discuss Software Defined Radio Advancements. Also included in this weekend is the HAMARAMA hamfest on Sunday, September 28. For more informa- tion see http://www.packratvhf.com.

+ AO-51 ground controllers have been able to boost the downlink power due to increased solar illumination. Both repeaters were reported to be operating at around 400 mW this week in dueal V/U mode.

+ AMSAT area coordinator, Clint Bradford, K6LCS, demonstrated oper- ating via AO-51 and gave his "How to Work Ham Satellites with your HT" presentation in Tarzana, CA, on Saturday morning, August 9. Clint has a 4 page satellite operating tutorial available on-line at: http://homepage.mac.com/clintbradford/Menu3.html.

+ AMSAT received the sad news that Doug Beckwith N4CZT, an avid fan and supporter of Amsat, passed away Sun. July 27 2008. He was 1 day from his 65th birthday. His son, Douglas, wrote to AMSAT, "Thanks for helping him follow his dream."

+ RA3OE reported the first QSO between Russian and Eurasia via DELFI-C3 (DO-64) on August 3 when he had a QSO with Anatoly, UA9UIZ.

[ANS thanks everyone for the above information]

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-223.06 AMSAT-UK Colloqium

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 223.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 10, 2008 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-223.06

AMSAT-UK Colloqium Presentation Videos Available On-Line

The Mars Orbiter P5-A Presentation video (lecture 10) is now on the BATC website. To access the videos go to http://www.batc.tv/ and click on the 'Archive' icon on the left. Select which AMSAT-UK lecture you wish to watch then click the 'Play' icon. An add- itional feature allows you to click on the icon between the 'Progress' bar and the 'Volume' bar to get full screen viewing.

Lectures 4 and 5 are about the MoonLITE project which will be the first Lunar mission by the United Kingdom.

Lectures 6, 7 and 8 are about the Delfi-C3 satellite

Lecture 9 is the P3-E satellite presentation given by AMSAT-DL President Peter Guelzow DB2OS, see also 'Get into Orbit with AMSAT-DL's P3E-Satel- lite' at http://www.p3e-satellite.org/index.pl?lang=en_EN

Lecture 10 will be the Amateur Radio Mars Orbiter P5-A given by Achim Vollhardt DH2VA, see also 'GO-Mars with AMSAT-DL's P5A Mission' at http://ticket-to-mars.org/index.pl?lang=en_EN

Other video presentations planned to be added include:

Lecture 11 will be the Delfi-n3Xt next generation satellite presentation.

Lecture 12 will be the presentation on the new GB4FUN vehicle given by Carlos Eavis G0AKI

Lecture 13 will be the 2.3/3.4/5.6GHz Signal Generator for Satellite Applications by Grant Hodgson G8UBN

Lectures 14/15 will be the Band planning for satellite operations on frequencies in the Amateur Service by Hans van de Groenendaal ZS6AKV, President AMSAT-SA followed by the IARU Satellite Forum.

The full lecture programme (with video lecture numbers) can be seen at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/640/213/

The PowerPoint presentation slides can be viewed at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/664/235/

Pictures from the event can be seen at: http://www.uk.amsat.org/gallery2

[ANS thanks Trevor, M5AKA 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 additional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office.

73, This week's ANS Editor, Dee Interdonato, NB2F nb2f at amsat dot org