SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0911 * SpaceNews 11-Sep-95 * BID: $SPC0911 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 1995 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for unlimited free distribution. * EUROMIR AND SAFEX II UPDATE * =============================== German Cosmonaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, arrived at the Russian space station MIR. He will stay there for 135 days and operate DP0MIR, as time permits. Presently there are two crews aboard MIR, and he is very busy with his scientific experiments. One of the crews will return to earth in a few days, and we expect Thomas to find more time for QSOs thereafter. The frequencies to be used are 145.800 MHz for downlink, and 145.200 MHz for uplink, as adopted at the IARU session of the AMSAT-UK Colloquium this year. There should not be any QRM at 145.800 MHz, because this frequency is in the 2-meter satellite sub-band. So listen for DP0MIR at 145.800 MHz, however watch 145.550 MHz too. He will operate not only over Europe, but worldwide. The 70 cm equipment will be installed during the mission. It is capable of FM voice and FSK 9600 baud packet modes (G3RUH system). Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE, and Joerg Hahn, DL3LUM, of the Ham Radio Group of DLR (which is the German Mission Control for EUROMIR 95) announced that there will also be picture transmission from MIR by means of a new "SSTV" mode. This new mode will transmit pictures, taken by a still video camera aboard MIR, in AX.25 packets. The protocol of this mode does not generate an image on a "line by line" basis, but rather uses a random sampling that allows the reception of a "thumbnail" image over a short period of time with increasing resolution as more of the transmission is received. Eberhard Backeshoff, DK8JV, author of the well known JVFAX program is in charge of software development for this new system. He will make a suitable program available to all HAMs as soon as it is completed. He asks that people refrain from sending requests for the software, and stay tuned for further information which is expected to be released soon. [Info via Norbert, DF5DP, DARC Coordinator Satellites And Space Projects] * SATTRACK SOFTWARE NEWS * ========================== A few important improvements have been made to the SatTrack V3.1 graphics code. These are: 1. Implementation of a NO-FLICKER feature (this makes the display updates much smoother). 2. Correction of the default font size setting (this was a problem on SGI machines). 3. More cleanly defined pointers in the event handler calls (this gave rise to compiler warnings only). The new module 'satgraph.c' can be obtained from the SatTrack web page with the following URL: http://ssl.berkeley.edu/isi_www/sattrack.html This new module is fully compatible with the V3.1 distribution. Replace the old module with the new one and then recompile the code. No other changes are required. A new Makefile to compile SatTrack on DEC Alpha and SGI Indigo workstations is also part of the 3.1.1 patch. A new distribution file (sattrack-3.1.1.tar.gz) that contains the entire SatTrack V3.1 code including the new 3.1.1 patch is available from the web page as well. If you do not have access to the web, send a note and we will email the new satgraph module and/or the new Makefile. [Info via Manfred Bester, Manfred@SSL.Berkeley.Edu] * EUROMIR 95 STATUS REPORT * ============================ The longest manned mission in European space history got underway Sunday 03-Sep-95 with a spectacular blast-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. EUROMIR 95, the second joint ESA-Russian mission to the Mir space station, will continue into the New Year and will include the first spacewalk by an ESA astronaut. The Soyuz spacecraft, carrying European astronaut Thomas Reiter and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Avdeev and Yuri Gidzenko, lifted-off at 11:00 CEST/Paris time. The 50-metre tall rocket, trailing a long, flickering tongue of flame, roared away from the same launch pad used by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. The launch was conducted by the Russian Space Forces, with industrial support from RSC Energia. Following separation of the spacecraft from the launcher, control of the mission was handed over from the Space Forces in Baikonur to the Flight Control Centre (TsUP) at Kaliningrad, near Moscow. The TsUP is operated by the Central Institute for Machine Building (TsNIIMash) and Energia. "This mission marks a major leap forward in European manned space experience," said ESA Director for Manned Space Flight and Microgravity Jorg Feustel-Bechl, who watched the launch from a nearby viewing site. "It will provide European scientists with unprecedented data on long duration space flight and further strengthen ESA's relationship with the Russian space programme." The main goal of the record-breaking 135-day flight is to study the effects of 'weightlessness' on the human body and test new processes for manufacturing hi-tech materials. In addition, the mission will provide valuable experience for ESA astronauts and engineers working on the international space station project. Other highlights of the mission will include a five-hour spacewalk by Reiter on 20-Oct-95 and the docking of the US space shuttle Atlantis, carrying four Americans and one Canadian. EUROMIR 95 is scheduled to end with a landing in Kazakhstan on 16-Jan-96. [Info via Ron Baalke @ Jet Propulsion Laboratory] * WINDOWS 1984? * ================= The May 1995 issue of "Information Week" magazine reported of a hidden "feature" of Microsoft's new Windows 95 operating system that is designed to escape detection by users of the software. The article reported that Microsoft officials confirm that beta versions of Windows 95 include a small viral routine called Registration Wizard. The routine interrogates every system on a network gathering intelligence on what software is being run on which machine. It then creates a complete listing of both Microsoft's and competitor's products by machine that it reports to Microsoft when customers sign up for Microsoft's Network Services. A user of a beta version of Windows 95 was successful in detecting the transmission of his hard disk directory structure to Microsoft as a background process when he tried out some of his free demonstration time on Microsoft's Network. He did this by setting up a packet sniffer between his computer's serial port and his modem. There have been no indications that this "feature" was removed in the final release version of Windows 95. It goes without saying that users of Windows 95 should be aware of the Registration Wizard routine in Microsoft's new operating system, and excercise caution when using Windows 95 to connect to Microsoft's Network (or any network for that matter) since the operating system offers NO security. * THANKS! * =========== Thanks to all those who sent messages of appreciation to SpaceNews recently especially: VE1AOE G3IOR KB4MHH VK4KNA YV5AMW KC7DBA Maurizio Bertolino * 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 : 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