SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0220 * SpaceNews 20-Feb-95 * BID: $SPC0220 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY FEBRUARY 20, 1995 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution. * PHASE 3-D NEWS * ================== On February 13, 1995, the AMST Phase 3D integration facility in Orlando, Florida was visited by the USA NETWORK television show, "INSIDE SPACE". Among those interviewed were Keith Baker, KB1SF, Executive Vice President of AMSAT-NA, Dick Jansson, WD4FAB, Vice President of Engineering for AMSAT-NA, and Chuck Hennessey, W4AT, Integration Team Member. Also included were Philip Chien, KC4YER, and David Jordon, AA4KN. The interviews discussed the AMSAT organization as a whole, its past accomplishments, and future endeavors in addition to a detailed tour of the Phase 3D satellite under assembly. This program segment should air in two to three months on the SCI-FI channel. [Info via David Jordon, AA4KN] * RS-15 NEWS * ============== RS-15 telemetry study indicates that the intermittent on-off transponder and beacon switching is due to insufficient battery holding capacity when the solar cells are in eclipse conditions. While Channels 3 and 4, the IFA power supplies remain at 9v and the Channel 5 stabiliser voltage maintains 5v, other parameters fall. Channel 1, the RS-15 onboard power supply normally reads around 16 - 17v in sunlight. When the satellite was in darkness on 10th February at 2236 it had dropped to 14.4v. By 2237:30 it was 14v, by 2239 13.2 v and by 2240:30 only 12.4v. At 2241:00 both transponder and TLM became intermittent preventing further readings until 2255:30 UTC when it rose to 15.5v and both beacon and transponder became full time operational again. Channel 6, the solar battery voltage, normally some 18.4v, was 17.6v at 2236, 13.2v at 2237:30, and down to 12v by 2239. It came up to 18v at 2255:30 and 18.4v from 2257 UTC. Channel 7, the solar cell battery current normally some 880mA had dropped to 400mA at 2236 UTC and then on 0mA from 2237:30 until full operation started again at 2255:30 UTC by which time it was 880mA. Users are recommended not to uplink to RS-15 when Channel 1 reads less than 15v, when Channel 6 is below 17v or when Channel 7 reads no charge. As the RS-15 path changes and the dusk to dawn line approaches 90 degrees to the equator as we approach the equinox full time operation should come about once more. In the meantime, if users will keep their uplinks down to 100w ERP or less, the battery charge will last longer and possibly permit continuous nighttime operations. GM4IHJ's eclipse software shows that RS-15's path is now taking it to an orbit of increasing sunlight to darkness ratio. By 17th February the satellite was seeing only 15.3 minutes (12%) of eclipse per orbit which should return the system to full time operation once more. On 18th February the eclipse period drops to 11.2 minutes (9%) and then to only 6.4 minutes (5%) on 19th February. From 20th February to 11 March inclusive it is in full orbit sunlight. The bad news is that we return to 6.4 minutes of eclipse on 12th March, increasing to 15.6 minutes on 14th March from when the intermittence will most likely return. By 5th April we are back to a 36 minute period of eclipse, this time then decreasing again to just 12.8 minutes again on 7th May 1995. On the assumption that the battery is in good condition, we may continue to expect regular and similar eclipse events in the future. [Info via G3IOR] * STATE VECTOR INFO * ===================== NASA OIG RAID RBBS at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is now posting state vectors for the Space Shuttle around the clock, 7 days a week when the Shuttle is on-orbit. The vectors are posted every hour and are typically 1-2 hours old. This is therefore (generally) the most current orbital information available to the general public for the Space Shuttle. NASA OIG RAID RBBS may be accessed via the Internet or at (301) 262-6784. A new (freeware) program called VEC2VIF was written by Curtis Haase that extracts the most current state vector from the file posted on NASA OIG RAID RBBS and formats it for direct read by VEC2TLE, which converts the vector data to NASA 2-line style Keplerian elements. Curtis includes a batch file that calls the command-line/batch version of VEC2TLE (i.e., V2KEP) that makes the whole operation pretty much "plug and play." The most current versions of VEC2TLE and VEC2VIF are available from CompuServe, and Ham-It-Up BBS (516) 878-4906 or (516) 878-3638. VEC2TLE is available from AMSAT-NA and NASA Spacelink BBS as well. Future releases of VEC2TLE will have VEC2VIF bundled in the distribution files. [Info via Ken Ernandes] * APT SATELLITE NEWS * ====================== The following was observed 50.61 deg NLat, 7.55 deg ELon; FEB 12, 1995: Following the satellite-name is the approximate hour (local=sun-time) and motion-direction of the pass (N=northbound, S=southbound). NOAA-9 11:S APT 137.62 MHz On NOAA-10 17:N APT 137.50 MHz On NOAA-12 19:N APT 137.50 MHz On NOAA-14 13:N APT 137.62 MHz On Meteor 3-5 12:N APT 137.85 MHz On Not active: Meteor 2-21 and OKEAN 1-7. Leo Wikholm from Finland has reported that he was able to copy APT of OKEAN 1-7 from passes over northern Russia from time to time. [Info via Peter Henne @ German Nat.Research Center.f.Comp.Science] * THANKS! * =========== Thanks to all those who sent messages of appreciation to SpaceNews, especially: F5DGQ KG5OA YV5AMW * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Mail to SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the following paths: FAX : 1-908-747-7107 PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org -or- magliaco@pilot.njin.net SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19 MAIL : John A. Magliacane, KD2BD Department of Engineering and Technology Advanced Technology Center Brookdale Community College Lincroft, New Jersey 07738 U.S.A. <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> /EX