Re: [amsat-bb] Looking for any info on RS-1

[Nico Janssen <hamsat@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jay,

RS 1 and RS 2, the first Russian amateur satellites, were launched
together with the Russian navigation satellite Cosmos 1045 from
Plesetsk Cosmodrome on October 26, 1978. RS 1 and RS 2 were
separate satellites, so they were not just amateur transponder
packages built into another satellite, like RS 10/RS 11 and
RS 12/RS 13. The mode A transponder in RS 1 as well as RS 2 failed
after only a few months of operation as a result of battery
failure.

In February 1981, however, RS 1 came back to life. It appeared
that its battery had gone open circuit, so that power from the
solar panels was available to the onboard systems whenever the
satellite was in sunlight. For a while the mode A transponder
could be used again with very weak signals. The CW telemetry
beacon transmitter on 29.401 MHz also appeared again from time to
time. Because of radiation damage, the telemetry system output was
corrupt and the identification letters 'RS' were replaced by '55'.

RS 1 is the object with NORAD Catalog number 11084 and designator
1978-100A. RS 2 is 11085, 1978-100B and Cosmos 1045 probably is
11086, 1978-100C. I know that NORAD since a number of years lists
Cosmos 1045 as 11084, RS 1 as 11085 and RS 2 as 11086, but that
is definitely wrong. It is not unusual for NORAD to get several
objects from the same launch mixed up, especially when they have
no other means to identify the objects, like radio signals in a
downlink. Anyhow, you can identify the objects by looking at
their mean motion values. So if you find kepler element sets for
the objects from the 1978-100 launch, then the object with a mean
motion value close to 11.9673 orbits per day is RS 1.

I have been monitoring the 29.401 MHz beacon of RS 1 for several
years but I have not heard it anymore since at least 5 years.
Also I have not seen any reports from other observers. So if you
would like to give it a try again, I would be very interested in
seeing your reports here. I hope you can find recent kepler
elements for RS 1. The most recent ones I have are from late 1998.

Good luck.

73, Nico, PA0DLO


Jay, kf6rmg wrote:
> 
>    No, that's not a typo, RS-1. I read in "A Brief History of Amateur
> Satellites" at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/sats/n7hpr/history.html that
> "...RS-1 is still giving signals. Its battery open circuited soon after
> launch, but the spacecraft's 29.401 MHz beacon can still be heard sending
> "55" when the solar cells are in full sunlight..." If this is true, I'd like
> to try listening for RS-1, but I don't know where to start looking for keps
> for a bird this old. I'd also be interested in ANY other info about RS-1
> that anyone here might have, no matter how trivial it may be.
> 
>                                                              Tnx es 73,
>                                                              Jay, KF6RMG
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