SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0529 * SpaceNews 29-May-95 * BID: $SPC0529 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY MAY 29, 1995 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution. * PANSAT NEWS * =============== The Petite Amateur Navy Satellite (PANSAT) is a small, spread-spectrum communication satellite developed by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) as an educational project for officer students. PANSAT will be a tumbling spacecraft with a weight of 150 pounds to be completed in 1996. PANSAT will most likely be launched from the Space Shuttle by means of the HitchHiker program. The launch will place PANSAT in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with an inclination of at least 28 degrees. The spacecraft will supply direct-sequence, spread-spectrum modulation with an operating center frequency of 436.5 MHz, a bit rate of 9600 bits per second and 4 MB of message storage. Amateur radio ground stations will be able to utilize PANSAT for store-and-forward communication. Through use by the amateur radio community PANSAT will supply a means to demonstrate spread-spectrum communications. In addition, PANSAT provides many potential applications for low-cost communications. The low probability-of-intercept would be an important feature for the military in downed-pilot-rescues. The pilot could obtain his/her location through a GPS system and uplink the information to the orbiting satellite at low risk. Examples of civilian uses include emergency rescue and communication to remote areas. To prepare the spacecraft for flight it will undergo functional and environmental testing at the system and subsystem level. The environmental testing includes thermal vacuum, random vibration, and electromagnetic interference and compatibility (EMI/EMC) testing. All testing will be conducted using NPS space test facilities. A modified amateur satellite ground station is needed to communicate with PANSAT. The NPS ground station utilizes off-the-shelf software, is microcomputer controlled, and is equipped with a spread-spectrum modem. The NPS ground station is similar to a typical amateur radio user station, except it has spacecraft command capability. The NPS ground station is also utilized as a classroom instructional laboratory. [Info via the Naval Postgraduate School] * MIR SCHOOL CONTACT * ====================== Dave, N1PPP reports that the Russian space station Mir made a scheduled radio contact with Chris Edscorn at Crotched Mountain school in New Hampshire over the past week. Chris teaches a special education communications class, and since there is no third party agreement with Russia, asked questions of Dr. Norm Thaggard for the class. The contact lasted about six minutes. Dr. Thaggard was very busy with a communications satellite and wasn't sure he would be able to make the contact, but managed to take a few moments to make the contact. * WO-18 CRASH * =============== Bob Argyle, KB7KCL, at Weber State University has reported that sometime between 17-May-95 21:30 UTC and 18-May-95 19:12 UTC, Webersat/OSCAR-18 experienced a software crash. The transmitter has been turned back on and is sending MBL telemetry. After determining the cause of the crash, the spacecraft controllers will reload the satellite with its software, adding a few new features. The following MBL frames were received from WO-18 by KD2BD in New Jersey on Saturday 27-May-95: WEBER-1>TIME-1 : PHT: uptime is 003/12:22:01. Time is Sat May 27 18:11:29 1995 WEBER-1>LSTAT : A: 0x0B97, P:0x3000, o:0 l:11065 f:11065 d:0 st:2 WEBER-1>CAST : 05:55 24-May-95 Initial software reloaded. Expect improved software aboard in about 3 weeks. 73, KB7KCL and IK3WVJ Webersat command team * LOST SATELLITE LOGS * ======================= Benoit, VE2VB, of St-Felix de Valois Quebec (Grid FN36ic) has reported that he lost a computer file containing logs of some of his recent satellite contacts. He made about 30 contacts on AO-10 and AO-13 in the month of April, and asks anyone who may have worked him during this period to contact him so he can build his log up again and issue QSL cards to those who need them. Benoit can be reached on packet radio at: VE2VB@VE2CLJ.PQ.CAN.NA, or via the Internet at: ve2vb@mtlgw.ampr.org. Benoit's postal address may be found in any Callbook from 1987 to the present. * SATELLITE NEWS * ================== Benoit, VE2VB, reports that is in Mode JA and FO-20 is working great. On 25-May-95 he reported very strong downlink signals and worked stations in Europe and in the USA while the satellite was along the U.S. east coast. He also reports receiving very strong downlink signals from AO-10 on 24-May-95 using a 22 element yagi and no preamp. * 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