SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0721 * SpaceNews 21-Jul-97 * BID: $SPC0721 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY JULY 21, 1997 SpaceNews originates at KD2BD in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. It is published every week and is made available for non-commercial use. * MARS PATHFINDER NEWS * ======================== The Orbital Report On-Line newsletter reports that NASA's $271-million Mars Pathfinder mission is successful beyond expectations. The 325-kg JPL built probe performed hard-landing in the Ares Vallis region, by 19.33 deg N 33.55 deg E, at 16:56 UTC on 04-Jul-97. The airbag-protected spacecraft hit the ground at a velocity of some 18 m/s (62 g on impact). It bounced some 15 times and rolled over about 1 km before stopping. The $25-million Sojourner rover was deployed on ramps provided by Spar Aerospace on 06-Jul-97 and began exploring the neighborhood of the probe at a speed of about 1 cm/s. Initially planned to perform for one week, the rover is now expected to be operational for about one month. The 9-kg Sojourner rover was developed on behalf of NASA's Office of Advanced Concepts & Technology as Microrover Flight Experiment (MFEX) to test microrover performance on unknown planetary surfaces. Similar rovers may fly on future US planetary missions as well as on Japan's MUSES-C mission to asteroid 4660 Nereus. * UoSAT-OSCAR-22 NEWS * ======================= UO-22 (UoSAT-5) was scheduled to be reloaded last Wednesday morning during the first few passes over Surrey. This reload was necessary to allow incorporation of a number of new features into the spacecraft flight software. While most amateur operators will probably not notice the improvements in terms of the communication performance, there is a performance gain for housekeeping systems. One area that may be noticable is a small improvement in uplink speed (especially for large files) as the checksum is now performed on the fly instead of on completion of the upload. A new attitude control task is also being tested and ADCS experiments will continue for the next week or so. This will not effect the spacecraft store and forward communications. Chris Jackson Groundstation and Operations Manager Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd University of Surrey Guildford, Surrey GU2 5HX, UK Ph: +44 1483 259-141 Fax: +44 1483 259-503 http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/EE/CSER/UOSAT/ * MIR NEWS * ============ For the 2nd weekend in a row, the MIREX team completed another successful family phone patch for Mike Foale on Mir to this parents in the UK. The first patch took place via Miles Mann, WF1F on Saturday July 5, and lasted for 9 minutes. The second patch took place on Saturday July 12 and lasted for over 15 minutes. Dave Larsen, N6CO started the patch from his QTH in California. That patch lasted for over 6 minutes. Then Mike was handed off to Miles in Boston, who continued the patch to the UK. Mike got an additional 9 minutes of family time during the same pass. Signal quality from Mir was great. The phone audio patch quality was also good. Mike and his parents did not have any problems understanding each other. Mike Foale later thanked Dave Larsen for the phone patch by sending a packet radio message via the Mir personal message system: Stat : PR Posted : 07/12/97 19:52 To : N6CO From : R0MIR @ BBS : BID : Subject: yl Dave, thanks for the sked. Great to talk so long with my parents. You are spoiling me. Mike [Info via Miles Mann, WF1F] * NEWS FROM INFOESPACE * ======================== The french translation of SpaceNews, InfoEspace, is now available over the World Wide Web. Mike, VE2TRV, the translator, and Pat VE2NEN have set up a substantial Web site for their club, Laval Laurentides ARC, and InfoEspace is included on one of its many pages. The URL is: http://pages.infinit.net/ve2crl/ To access InfoEspace, click on the Radio Cafe icon in the main window (you may have to scroll down a bit), then look for and click on the InfoEspace/ SpaceNews icon (a picture of Mir). InfoEspace may either be read directly on-site, or may be downloaded by clicking on the indicated hyperlink. There are direct links to SpaceNews and to the WWW addresses featured in the latest edition of SpaceNews. InfoEspace may also be directly accessed at: http://pages.infinit.net/ve2crl/space.htm Mike encourages anyone who downloads InfoEspace and has access to the packet network to freely spread it around. The bulletin header, including BID, and the packet message terminator are included in the text. [Info via Mike VE2TRV and Pat VE2NEN] * OSCAR-11 NEWS * ================= It has been an uneventful month for OSCAR-11. During the period 20-June to 17-July, excellent signals have once again been received from the 145.826 MHz beacon. The improved signals may be partly due to increased power output resulting from lower beacon temperatures. In the UK, the change to Summer time, and the lighter mornings make the early morning passes more socially acceptable. There is less electrical interference and splatter from mobile radios in the early mornings than in the afternoons. The Mode-S beacon has been heard by Dean, AL7CR in Anchorage, Alaska, and by Joe K0VTY, located near Omaha, Nebraska. Joe used a 60 cm dish and a Down East Microwave converter working into a Kenwood TR-781 with a Time Wave DSP-9 filter. Thanks Dean & Joe. Telemetry is reported to be nominal. The battery voltage is generally around 14 volts. The internal temperatures reached minumum values (battery -0.4C telemetry electronics -1.6 C), and have now started to rise. The minimum value of solar illumination was about 72% of full sunlight. Temperatures should now increase, as the solar illumination reaches a peak of about 97% in October. Two WOD surveys of channels 10, 20, 30, 40 (+Y, -X, +X array currents, array voltage) dated 07-June, and 25 June respectively, have been transmitted. A single AMSAT-UK bulletin by Richard G3RWL has been uploaded. This featured Sputnik-1 40th anniversary, MIR frequencies, and RS-10 news. Bulletins always include current Keplerian elements for OSCAR-11, and often Keps for satellites featured in the bulletin. Richard always welcomes short news items for inclusion in the OSCAR-11 bulletin. His e-mail address is g3rwl@amsat.org. The operating schedule remains unchanged: ASCII status (210 seconds) ASCII bulletin (60 seconds) BINARY SEU (30 seconds) ASCII TLM (90 seconds) ASCII WOD (120 seconds) ASCII bulletin (60 seconds) BINARY ENG (30 seconds) There are also additional status blocks after each bulletin is transmitted, and between ASCII TLM and WOD. The Mode-S beacon is ON transmitting an unmodulated carrier, but telemetry indicates that it has partially failed, and delivering half power. Any reports of reception on 2401 MHz would be most welcome, and should be directed to Clive Wallis at: g3cwv@amsat.org. The 435.025 MHz beacon is normally OFF. However it can sometimes be heard when the satellite is being commanded by ground control, ie. within range of Guildford, UK. When the 435 MHz beacon is transmitting, the 145 MHz beacon is normally OFF. The data transmitted is mainly binary. OSCAR-11 users are welcome to visit Clive Wallis' OSCAR-11 Web site. It contains some software for capturing data, and decoding ASCII telemetry and WOD. There is an archive of raw data (mainly WOD) for analysis, which is continually being expanded, as new data is captured. The URL is: http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/clivew/ [Info via Clive Wallis, G3CWV (g3cwv@amsat.org)] * AO-16 NEWS * ============== AMSAT-OSCAR-16 is performing well in "Pacsat" duty. The following are several packet frames captured from AO-16 indicating its status and uptime. All binary telemetry information has been converted to ASCII. PACSAT-12>TIME-1: PHT: uptime is 1035/10:41:58. Time is Sat Jul 19 16:07:08 1997 PACSAT-1>TLM: 33D0E62C Sat Jul 19 16:07:08 1997 00:69 01:95 02:70 03:7B 04:72 05:98 06:72 07:6A 08:71 09:96 0A:A4 0B:B0 0C:E7 0D:DB 0E:3A 0F:30 10:E2 11:80 12:00 13:EB 14:A8 15:B4 16:6D 17:70 18:5F 19:70 1A:74 1B:5E 1C:70 1D:80 1E:DE 1F:5E 20:C8 21:A6 22:70 23:2D 24:1F 25:3C 26:24 27:01 28:01 29:02 2A:07 2B:4C 2C:00 2D:55 2E:64 2F:A6 30:A7 31:A7 32:00 33:34 34:A4 35:A3 36:A2 37:A5 38:A0 39:DB 3A:01 PACSAT-1>AMSAT: July 1997 PACSAT AO-16 Owned and Operated by AMSAT-NA Command Team WJ9F, WD0E, VK7ZBX, KB5MU AO16 Command Team * LO-19 NEWS * ============== LUSAT-OSCAR-19 is also performing well in "Pacsat" duty. The following are several packet frames captured from LO-19 indicating its status and uptime. All binary telemetry information has been converted to ASCII. LUSAT-1>TIME-1: PHT: uptime is 760/02:16:18. Time is Sat Jul 19 16:21:28 1997 LUSAT-1>TLM: 33D0E988 Sat Jul 19 16:21:28 1997 00:6A 01:84 02:78 03:68 04:6F 05:87 06:76 07:88 08:6C 09:7A 0A:A3 0B:B3 0C:E8 0D:DA 0E:32 0F:33 10:DC 11:83 12:00 13:E4 14:A8 15:AC 16:78 17:6D 18:6D 19:6D 1A:69 1B:4A 1C:65 1D:6A 1E:D6 1F:5F 20:B3 21:9E 22:76 23:1F 24:13 25:28 26:52 27:00 28:00 29:03 2A:1A 2B:15 2C:00 2D:6B 2E:45 2F:A8 30:A7 31:AA 32:00 33:57 34:AC 35:AC 36:A0 37:AE 38:A2 39:AC 3A:AB 3B:02 3C:FF LUSAT-1>AMARG: July 1 - 1997. BBS is open. Uplink qrg: 145.840, 860, 880, 900 Norberto - LU8DYF. * PB/PG FOR LINUX RELEASED * ============================ Bent Bagger, OZ6BL, and Peter Scott Bentsen, OZ2ABA, have released version 1.0 of PB and PG for Linux. PB and PG for Linux are programs used for uploading and downloading files to and from digital communication satellites (Pacsats) that support the FTL0 communications protocol, allowing users to directly communicate with the Microsat series of satellites under Linux. PB and PG are based on earlier efforts by John Melton and Jonathan Naylor who authored XPB and XPG for execution under the X-Window System, but instead, provide a curses (ncurses) based user interface, and feature automatic directory fill requests along with simple, rules based file download requests. XPB and XPG were, in turn, based on earlier work by Jeff Ward who authored the original PB and PG programs for DOS. The current versions of PB and PG for Linux function with Linux kernel revisions 2.0.24 or higher, and utilize the AX.25 networking capabilities contained within the Linux operating system kernel. Since Linux is a multi-tasking operating system, it is possible to run both PB and PG simultaneously on different virtual consoles to accomplish the tasks of simultaneously uploading and downloading files to and from Microsat satellites. PB and PG for Linux are covered under the GPL (General Public License), and are available free of charge. A single compressed archive of both programs (pb-pg-1.0.oz6bl.tar.gz) may be downloaded via anonymous FTP at sunsite.unc.edu from the /pub/Linux/apps/ham subdirectory. * 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