[amsat-bb] AMSAT P5-A ground station successfully receives ESA's MARS-EXPRESSProbe

[Peter Guelzow <peter.guelzow@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear All,

The european MARS EXPRESS probe will arrive on Mars on Christmas Day
and deploy the lander BEAGLE toward the Mars surface.

Joint preparations by the IUZ and the AMSAT-DL for this event have started 
months ago, because the 20 metre parabolic antenna is also deemed to be used as 
ground station for the AMSAT-DL future P5-A Mars Mission.

On Sunday, Nov. 16th, Germany saw a first ever event when a strong (40dB/Hz) 
8.4 GHz signal of the MARS EXPRESS - at that moment 102 million kilometer 
distant - was directly received at Bochum over a number of hours.
It was the first time ever that a signal of an interplanetary deep space probe 
was received in Germany. It was probably also the first time ever that such a 
signal was received by amateur radio operators.

With this successful test the general functional and operational readiness of 
the 20 metre parabolic antenna in Bochum to serve as AMSAT-DL command station 
for the P5A Mars Mission has been proven. It will then be used to navigate the 
P5-A Satellite in 2007 safely towards Mars and to enter a Mars orbit.

The complete report is here:
http://www.amsat-dl.org/p5a/p5a-bochum-eng.htm

73s Peter DB2OS

---
Peter Guelzow, DB2OS
President AMSAT-DL
http://www.amsat-dl.org/


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