SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC1023 * SpaceNews 23-Oct-95 * BID: $SPC1023 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY OCTOBER 23, 1995 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution. * OSCAR-11 REPORT * =================== As of Wednesday 18 October 1995 at 06:11 UTC, telemetry was nominal, and WOD was dated 16th October. Bulletin $BID UO11.029 dated 6th October was being broadcast. The current diary schedule is as follows: ASCII status (210 seconds) ASCII bulletin (60 seconds) SEU (30 seconds) ASCII TLM (90 seconds) ASCII WOD (120 seconds) ASCII bulletin (60 seconds) ENG (30 seconds) There are also additional status blocks after each bulletin is transmitted. It is possible that the long period of ASCII status transmissions will be replaced by binary TLM and WOD. A new WOD survey of channels 1, 2, 3, 61 (magnetometers) is usually started when the weekly bulletin is loaded, or when other ground control activity occurs. OSCAR-11 can be heard on 145.826 MHz. Modulation is 1200 baud AFSK with tones of 1200/2400 Hz. There have been many designs for suitable decoders, but perhaps the simplest way is to use an old telephone modem, using Bell 202, or V23 tones. It is essential to invert the modem's output signal before feeding it into the computer. For ASCII, the serial port should be set to 1200 E,7,1. The satellite also has an S-Band beacon that transmits a continous carrier on 2401.5 MHz. Schools can now send their Amateur Satellite News to Richard Limebear, G3RWL, via the Internet (g3rwl@amsat.org) for inclusion in the ASCII new broadcasts made by OSCAR-11. [Info via Clive Wallis, G3CWV] * GALILEO NEWS * ================ Engineering data returned from NASA's Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft on 11-Oct-95 indicates a problem with the spacecraft's tape recorder, project officials report. Project officials say a week or more may be required for the problem to be isolated or well-understood, but that the spacecraft remains otherwise healthy and in contact with controllers on Earth. The problem was detected shortly after Galileo took an image of Jupiter and its major moons from 22 million miles away. After taking the three images required for a color photograph to be produced, the tape recorder used to store the data was commanded to rewind. Data received from Galileo suggest the tape recorder did not stop as expected after rewinding. "Galileo engineers have commanded the tape recorder to a standby mode while they investigate further," said Galileo Project Manager William J. O'Neil of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. Project engineers are proceeding slowly and cautiously to understand the problem, according to O'Neil, and are avoiding sending unnecessary commands to the spacecraft. In addition to analyzing spacecraft telemetry, engineers are working with an identical tape recorder in a laboratory spacecraft mockup on the ground. "The next scheduled spacecraft operation that we need to perform is a routine thruster flushing in about two weeks," said O'Neil. "We want to take the time in the interim to understand this problem in detail." [Info via NASA] * MIR CREW USING NEW AMATEUR RADIO COMMUNICATIONS * =================================================== German Cosmonaut Thomas Reiter (amateur radio callsign DP0MIR) and his two Russian crew members (R0MIR) have installed a new 70 cm band transceiver aboard their Mir space station. Uplink Downlink Main 70 cm frequencies are: 435.725 MHz 437.925 MHz (Voice) 435.775 MHz 437.975 MHz (Packet) 2 meter frequencies are: 145.200 MHz 145.800 MHz 145.550 MHz 145.550 MHz There has been no 9600 baud packet radio activity yet since the high speed TNC will not arrive at MIR space station until the end of the year. ESA plans to extend the EUROMIR 95 mission an additional 44 days. [Info via Keith Stein] * OSCAR STATUS REPORT * ======================= Pacsat AO-16: Normal BBS. Dove DO-17: Softwrare load in progress 11/17/95 WD0E [telemetry dwell 60 secs] Weber WO-18: 14-Oct-95 *Collecting and Sending WOD Week3: BCR Ch# 21 22 29 2F 33 36 *Photo 9/13 of Brazil *Monday, New Spectrum 73, IK3WVJ & KB7KCL Lusat LU-19: BBS now functioning normal power levels on 437.125 MHz LUSAT-1 to AMARG September 16. AX.25 downlink on 437.125 mhz. CW experiment if off. LU8DYF. ITAMSAT IO-26: No signals on either d/l after MBL telem last week [Thursday] [Info via Graham Ranft, VK7ZO] * STS-73 LAUNCHED * =================== After a record number of launch delays, the Space Shuttle "Columbia" was successfully transported into earth orbit after a launch at 13:53 UTC on 20-Oct-95 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. * THANKS! * =========== Thanks to all those sent messages of appreciation to SpaceNews, especially: KB2SMS KF0MS * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below: FAX : 1-908-747-7107 FTP : pilot.njin.net cd to /pub/SpaceNews WWW : http://www.njin.net:80/~magliaco/ PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : 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