SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.01 Small Payload Rideshare Conference AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.01 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 30, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.01 As part of AMSAT's on-going effort to develop points of contact and relationships within the space industry Lee McLamb, KU4OS attended the Small Payload Rideshare Conference sponsored by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the USAF Space and Missile Systems Center/Space Test Program Office (SMC/STP), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Spaceflight Center (NASA/GSFC). This annual conference is designed to address the issues related to access to space for small payloads, their potential benefits, and the key technologies for achieving affordable access to space. This year's conference was held 11-13 May 2004 in Anchorage, Alaska. "This was a very informative conference", reports Lee. He continued, "I think we picked up some very useful information and have started learning where there may be opportunities for mutually beneficial partnerships". Included in the conference where presentations on new small launchers as well as several presentations on secondary payload adapters being developed for US launch vehicles. Lee said, "One unexpected benefit was that AMSAT was invited to fill in on a panel on 'The Value of Small Satellites' ". The panel session allowed us make a presentation introducing AMSAT to the entire conference and participate in a Question & Answer session. [ANS thanks Lee, KU4OS for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.02 AMSAT Awards AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.02 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 30, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.02 Congrats go out to the following for earning their Oscar Satellite Communications Achievement Award. #395 SV1AWE Bob Koulouris 25-May-2004 To see all the awards and a list of those earning the awards, visit http://www.amsatnet.com/awards.html [ANS thanks Bruce, KK5DO for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.03 ARISS contact with Erie Planetarium successful AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.03 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 30, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.03 Mike Fincke KE5AIT on board the ISS had a very successful contact with the Erie Planetarium this afternoon at approximately 2004-05-25 18:01 UTC. There were 18 questions asked before Mike went over the horizon from telebridge station VK5ZAI. As you may be aware, Mike is a pretty new ham and did an outstanding job with the students at Erie. At Erie, Jim Gavio (Planetarium Director) was assisted by Ron N3BXL, Paul N3UMM, Jim WW3S, and Jim KB3IXG. The ARISS program also wishes to thank Mary and the rest of the MCI crew for their hard work in providing the telebridge connection. Thanks also to WillbKC6ROL who was the moderator and to Tony VK5ZAI our telebridge station. Please provide feedback on how well the streaming audio went. [ANS thanks Charlie, AJ9N for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.04 ARISS Contact Schedule and Successful School List Updated AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.04 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 30, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.04 Expedition 9 crew is now on the ISS. E. Michael Fincke KE5AIT Gennady I. Padalka RN3DT The schedule page has been updated as of 2004-05-25 20:00 UTC. The successful school list has been updated as of 2004-05-25 20:00 UTC. The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list is now available on the ARISS web site. There are several ARISS web sites: English: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/ French: http://c.avmdti.free.fr/ariss/index.htm ARISS Europe: http://www.ariss-eu.org/ ARISS Japan: http://www.jarl.or.jp/ariss/ Other locations include: Latest ARISS announcements and news http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt Successful school list http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf or http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov [ANS thanks Charlie, AJ9N for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.05 APRS and transit of Venus AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.05 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 30, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.05 There were plans to use HAM radio and APRS to track the once-a-century transit of Venus coming up next week on 8 June. http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/VenusTransit.html I have not received much feedback of anyone else planning on making observations or participating in the HF and satellite nets that were proposed. I thought this would be a great PR event for HAM radio becasue it is the FIRST EVER occurrence of this event in Human history when we have the miracle of Radio to compare observations from around the globe in real time. If you will be doing something on HAM radio for this event, lets coordinate activities. Such as what HF net frequencies should we use? I will try to coordinate APRS applications on my WEB page above. [ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.06 AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2004 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.06 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 30, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.06 Just a reminder that the AMSAT-UK Colloquium will be held at the University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom on Friday 30 July to Sunday 1 August 2004. The arrangements and activities will be much the same as in previous years. A feature of this year's meeting will be a talk and Q and A session by Prof Colin Pilinger of Beagle 2 fame. He will be doing this on Friday afternoon. We are also hoping to have present that day the gentleman who was the project's Chief Engineer, but his presence is not yhet confirmed. You can attend either as a residential delegate, or just visit for a day. You do not have to be a member of AMSAT to attend If you wish to attend, please send in a booking form well before the event. There are a small number of double rooms available at the University for those bringing their wives/etc. But please let me know as soon as possible, so I can earmark one for you. ALso book early if you wish to stay at the slightly more up market (and more expensive!) nearby Holiday Inn, I suggest an early booking also Booking forms, and more information can be found on our web site at www.uk.amsat.org. Booking forms will be sent out with the next issue of Oscar News. We look foward to welcoming friends old and new at our 19th Colloquium! [ANS thanks Jim, G3WGM for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-151.07 Students compete in an odyssey to solve NASA-sposored problem AMSAT News Service Bulletin 151.07 From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. May 30, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-151.07 Students from around the world will participate in the Odyssey of the Mind 25th World Finals at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md., May 29 - June 1. NASA's Office of Earth Science provided a grant to develop one of the long- term challenges for this year's competition. The challenge, "Strategy Sphere," requires teams to design two devices that will propel balls through a circular hoop. Teams will also create a device to retrieve the balls after they are launched. All aspects of the problem solution will be integrated into a theme about how a change in the Earth's surface, affects the atmosphere. NASA expects to inspire nearly two million students, parents, teachers, and coaches around the world through its sponsorship of Odyssey of the Mind problems by encouraging interest and learning about Earth system science. "Odyssey of the Mind is a natural partnership with NASA's Office of Earth Science, whose goal is to understand and protect our home planet," said Dr. Michael King, Earth Observing System Senior Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "Exploration of scientific principles and creative solutions through sound engineering is valuable training and exciting to students the world over. NASA's interest in developing a deeper understanding and awareness of Earth's complex processes and man's impact on his or her environment is enabled by teaching the world's students to think 'outside the box' and solve complex problems about the environment," he added. NASA supported Odyssey's preliminary competitions by posting Earth science information on a special Web site. Web links were provided to assist students in developing solutions to problems facing the Earth. The Odyssey of the Mind program was founded in 1978. It is an international educational program promoting team effort and creative problem solving for students from kindergarten through college. Thousands of teams from the U.S. and other countries participate in the program. Teams participating in the finals advanced from local, state, regional and country competitions. NASA's Earth Science Enterprise is dedicated to understanding the Earth as an integrated system and applying Earth System Science to improve prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards using the unique vantage point of space. For images and information about Odyssey of the Mind on the Internet, visit: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0527odyssey.html To access the Odyssey of the Mind official Web site on the Internet, visit: http://www.odysseyofthemind.com For information about NASA's Odyssey of the Mind Strategy Sphere challenge, on the Internet, visit: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/odysseyofthemind For information about NASA, Education, Earth Science and other agency programs on the Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov [ANS thanks Jaques van Oene, via sci.space.news for the above information] /EX