SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0527 * SpaceNews 27-May-96 * BID: $SPC0527 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY MAY 27, 1996 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * KIDS BEAT NASA TO PUNCH * =========================== Two young researchers already know what NASA is spending $600,000 to find out: That magnetic rods stabilize spacecraft in the magnetic field of the earth! Using data they collected from AMSAT's WEBERSAT amateur radio satellite, James Wedewer, KE6QNL, and Justin Hartung have spent this school semester studying the motion of WEBERSAT over the magnetic poles of the earth and through the South Atlantic anomaly. WEBERSAT, an AMSAT microsat satellite is stabilized with four bar magnetic interacting with the magnetic field of the earth. Both researchers were looking for signs of nutation or wobble over the poles and in the anomaly. After winning at their high school science fair, the youth took their work to the L.A. County science fair where Justin received honorable mention and James won first place in Physics and Astronomy. James then competed in the International Fair in Tucson where he won the prestigious Air Force first place medal, a Navy scholarship and placed fourth place in the Space Science division of the fair. Finally, back to the California State science fair, where James won another first place in Physics and space science. In all, James won $4750 in cash and scholarships. Justin is a freshman and James is a senior at Chaminade College Preparatory in West Hills California, a school well known for its research in microsat satellite motion. [Info via Dave Reeves, KF6PJ] * MIR 21 NEWS CONFERENCE PLANNED * ================================== U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid, now in her third month aboard the Russian Mir space station, will join Commander Yuri Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Yuri Usachev for a news conference at 9:40 A.M. EDT (1340 UTC) on Tuesday, 28-May-96, from Mir. The news conference, which will be broadcast on NASA Television, will last 40 minutes and be divided into two parts; reporters at NASA centers will ask questions for the first 20 minutes before switching to the Russian Mission Control Center in Kaliningrad, where Russian reporters will ask questions for the last 20 minutes. The Russian portion of the news conference will be seen on NASA Television with English translation. NASA Television can be seen on Spacenet 2, Transponder 5, channel 9 with a frequency of 3880 MHz with audio on 6.8 MHz. Spacenet 2 is at an orbital position of 69 degrees West longitude. Polarization is horizontal. [Info via Pat Kilroy, WD8LAQ] * DC-XA ROCKET FLIGHT UPDATE * ============================== At 8:14 A.M. MDT (1414 UTC) on 18-May-96, the Delta Clipper-Experimental Advanced (DC-XA) reusable rocket climbed into the skies of New Mexico completing the first in a series of five planned flight tests. The vertical takeoff/vertical landing experimental vehicle flew the planned profile reaching an altitude of 800 feet, moving 350 feet laterally up range. After hovering briefly over the landing pad, the rocket throttled its four main engines to descend and brake for a landing. Landing gear was extended as the cone-shaped rocket neared the ground. The flight duration was one minute. On landing, fire flared along the base and side of the aeroshell of the technology demonstration vehicle and was extinguished. Initial inspection indicates that the vehicle is in good shape, structurally sound, with only superficial damage. "We successfully completed our flight objectives," said Dan Dumbacher, NASA's DC-XA program manager. "Damage was confined to one of the flaps of the DC-XA. The vehicle will fly again soon." Data from the flight is being evaluated. "The DC-XA is a technology demonstration program, and all of the new technology components worked as expected. An analysis of data from today's flight will add to the knowledge of reusable launch vehicle technology," said Dave Schweikle, McDonnell Douglas' DC-XA program manager. "Today's flight is another step forward in evaluating the new materials and systems leading to the development of a reusable rocket which will greatly reduce the cost of placing payloads into space," Dumbacher added. A team consisting of NASA, McDonnell Douglas, U.S. Air Force's Phillips Laboratory, and the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range has reached a major milestone in the reusable launch program. [Info via John Keller, N6JLH] * WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18 NEWS * ========================== Initial operating software was reloaded to WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18, and as of 01:59:06 UTC on Saturday 25-May-96, the satellite was transmitting telemetry and spacecraft status information, and reporting an uptime of one day, five hours, 48 minutes, and 41 seconds. Bob Argyle, KB7KCL is asking that anyone who captured telemetry from WEBERSAT-OSCAR-18 on 21-May-96 between 19:28:31 and 20:29:34 UTC please send it to him either via AO-16, uuencode and e-mail (rargyle@cc.weber.edu), or anonymous FTP upload to 137.190.32.131. He is especially interested in any telemetry gathered over Africa. Bob also reports that when WEBERSAT is successfully reloaded, it will be sending several new telemetry frames: The WASH-0 frame is the time (four bytes as seconds after 01-Jan-70 UTC, least significant byte first) and EDAC counter (one byte) of the last 50 single-event upsets detected in the EDAC RAM. The WEBTLM-0 frame is a real-time 4 byte time, then 100 channels (as one byte channel number, one byte value) of: 67 measured telemetry channels as at present, 13 calculated telemetry channels, and the 20 status bytes. The WEBTLM-1 frame is the same format as WEBTLM-0, except is not real time. The WEBTLM-2 frame is the same format as WEBTLM-0, but is sent as a burst upon command. The WEBTLM-3 frame is the same format as WEBTLM-0, but is sent individually upon command. The WEBTLM-4 frame is human readable, accepting a command to store telemetry and status during a certain period. The WEBTLM-5 frame is human readable, rejecting a command to store telemetry and status during a certain period. The WEBTLM-6 frame is human readable, indicating start or finish of moving the data in the RAM disk. The WEBTLM-7 frame is a four-byte time, indicating the requested data for that time is not availible. The WEBTLM-8 frame is human readable, indicating that PHOTO or SPECT frames will temporarily stop sending for up to 15 minutes, or will resume. * THANKS! * =========== Thanks to those who sent messages of appreciation to SpaceNews, especially: KC1CO AC6UH * 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