SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0520 * SpaceNews 20-May-96 * BID: $SPC0520 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY MAY 20, 1996 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * AMSAT CALL FOR PAPERS * ========================= The 1996 AMSAT Annual Meeting and Space Symposium will be held on November 8-10, 1996 at the Holiday Inn, City Center in Tucson, AZ. This is the second call for papers to authors who wish to submit for this event. As always, the scope of the papers should be on topics of interest to the amateur satellite service. Topics may include, but are certainly not limited to: The Life and Times of AO-13 Building a Phase-3D Ground Station Phase-3D Construction Topics DSP-93 Integration AMSAT Field Operations What's Next for AMSAT After Phase-3D? We also would like to solicit topics from the AMSAT community. In other words, what topics would YOU like to see presented at this year's Annual Meeting? We have already received some interesting proposals, for instance, regarding P3D ground station construction, but more input is always welcomed and desired. REMEMBER: Abstracts from authors should be submitted by June 15, 1996. Final versions of all papers should be received by August 15, 1996. Submissions and inquiries should be made to Dave Burnett, WD8KRV: By Internet: wd8krv@amsat.org By Mail: G. D. Burnett 4809 E. Pima #223 Tucson, AZ 85712 Information about the Annual Meeting home page will be included in a future announcement. We look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting! 73, Dave Burnett WD8KRV wd8krv@amsat.org * DC-XA ROCKET TEST FLIGHT NEWS * ================================= The NASA-McDonnell Douglas Delta Clipper-Experimental Advanced (DC-XA) was scheduled to begin a new, five flight test series at 9 AM MDT (1500 UTC) on Friday, May 17, at the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. "Friday's one-minute-long flight will begin validation of new reusable launch vehicle components such as the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks constructed of light-weight, high-strength materials," said Dave Schweikle, DC-XA program manager for McDonnell Douglas. "It will be the first time that the tanks' materials and construction will be tested under actual flight conditions." As the flights continue, the tests will become progressively longer in duration and more complex. Each flight incrementally increases stresses on the DC-XA and will lead to an understanding of the performance of the advanced technologies incorporated in the rocket's components. A rapid turnaround between flights is also scheduled to demonstrate the reusable rocket's aircraft-like operability and maintainability by a small support group. The reusable launch vehicle will validate advanced technology materials and components under flight conditions. The DC-XA is a follow-on of the DC-X, which successfully ended an eight flight test series last year. Although similar in appearance to the DC-X, the DC-XA is approximately 10 percent lighter, and will fly with upgraded avionics and a composite cryogenic liquid hydrogen tank, intertank structure, fuel line and valve. The DC-XA also contains an advanced technology aluminum-lithium liquid oxygen tank. Later in the test series it will operate a new system that converts liquid hydrogen to gas for fueling thrusters that control the rocket's attitude. The DC-X and DC-XA programs have demonstrated streamlined program management, rapid development of prototypes and aircraft-like operation and maintenance of launch vehicles by a small NASA-McDonnell Douglas team. Lessons learned from DC-X and DC-XA are being applied to the larger X-33, which is a NASA industry program. The X-33 will be used for technology development and risk reduction to enable the development of an affordable, reliable space transportation system to meet U.S. launch needs early in the next century. In July, NASA will select an industry team to develop, build and fly an X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype. [Info via John Keller, N6JLH] * FUJI-OSCAR NEWS * =================== Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK reports that the next FUJI-OSCAR satellite, JAS-2, is currently scheduled for launch in August this year. JAS-2 received a preliminary license in March, and the callsign 8J1JCS was assigned to the satellite. JAS-2 will carry both linear (analog) and digital (packet radio) communication transponders. A look at its frequency plan shows a similarity to FUJI-OSCAR-20 with some interesting additions: 1) Analog mode Uplink: 145.900 - 146.000 MHz Downlink: 435.800 - 435.900 MHz (inverted) * same as FO-20 Output power: 1W 2) Digital mode 1200bps BPSK (NRZ-I), same as FO-20 Uplink: 145.850, 145.870, 145.890, 145.910 MHz Downlink: 435.910 MHz Additionally, 9600bps FSK will be available on JAS-2. 9600bps FSK (NRZ-L) Uplink: 145.870 MHz Downlink: 435.910 MHz 3) Digitalker FM voice, max 25 seconds Downlink: 435.910 MHz Output power: 1W 4) CW telemetry Downlink: 435.795 MHz Speed: 12 WPM * same as FO-20 [Info via Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK] * SpaceNews AVAILABILITY * ========================== SpaceNews is available regularly on Usenet in the rec.radio.info, rec.radio.amateur.misc, and sci.space.news newsgroups, and on packet radio BBSs worldwide as well as the AMSAT-OSCAR-16 Pacsat satellite. It may also be retrieved using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) at ftp.njin.net (165.230.224.140) from the /pub/SpaceNews subdirectory. Internet users may also "finger magliaco@pilot.njin.net" for a copy of the latest issue, or access it via the World Wide Web at: http://www.cs.indiana.edu/finger/pilot.njin.net/magliaco/w. * FEEDBACK/INPUT WELCOMED * =========================== Comments and input for SpaceNews should be directed to the editor (John, KD2BD) via any of the paths listed below: WWW : http://www.njin.net/~magliaco/ PACKET : KD2BD @ KS4HR.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET : kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net SATELLITE : AMSAT-OSCAR-16, LUSAT-OSCAR-19 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> /EX