SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC1106 * SpaceNews 06-Nov-00 * BID: $SPC1106 ========= SpaceNews ========= MONDAY NOVEMBER 6, 2000 * PHASE 3D LAUNCH UPDATE * ========================== Phase 3D was recently mounted atop the Ariane 5 launcher, along with the much smaller STRV-1C and 1D satellites. Last week, the large PAS-1R communications satellite was placed aboard the launcher. A view of the entire payload can be found at the following URL: http://www.arianespace.com/news_missionupdate.html Phase 3D is scheduled to launch 01:07 UTC on Wednesday 15-Nov-00. The Radio Club of Kourou's FY5KE has announced plans to broadcast the Phase 3D launch on 14.315 MHz in French "and probably in English." The FY5KE transmission will start at approximately 15 minutes prior to launch and will end about 45 minutes later when the satellite reaches orbit. AMSAT-NA Vice President of Operations Keith Pugh, W5IU, reports that details are being worked out for an AMSAT-NA P3D Launch Information Net to run "live" during the launch. Keith reported that "at a minimum, the net will include several HF stations and bands." The current plan is to start about 15 minutes before launch and carry through separation of P3D. The U.S. net will be based on the live Arianespace satellite feed from the launch site and will also contain commentary by key AMSAT officials associated with the launch. According to W5IU, "dissemination of the launch information will be by the Houston AMSAT Net connection and by key HF stations, led by WA3NAN on their Shuttle re-transmission frequencies. Additional HF stations and frequencies will be added to fill in North American coverage." The Houston AMSAT Net connection will also be available via the Internet using the Real Audio format. The AMSAT launch team Internet web site has been popular with satellite operators around the world. The site now features several new photographs showing Phase 3D being placed aboard the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. To visit the site, point your browser to: http://www.amsat-dl.org/launch/ The following is the estimated State Vector and Keplerian Elements for the AMSAT Phase 3D spacecraft. The vector data was computed from Arianespace orbital parameters at the time Phase 3D is scheduled to separate from the Ariane 5 upper stage. The Keplerian Elements were computed, in turn, from the vector. Vector format = 10107 Satellite Name: Phase 3D Catalog Number: 93400 Epoch MET: 0.02896990700 0/00:41:43.000 MET EFG E: 6252.236120 km F: 5149.974174 km G: -641.751706 km Edot: -2.65855591 km/s Fdot: 8.08211797 km/s Gdot: -0.94209054 km/s ndot/2 (drag): 0.00000001545 rev/day^2 nddt/6: 0.00000E+00 rev/day^3 Bstar: 2.51416E-05 1/Earth Radii Elset #: 1 Rev @ Epoch: 1.50414245998 Launch Window Opens: 2000-NOV-15 / 0107 UTC Phase 3D separation: Launch + 00:41:43 The following Keplerian elements were computed from this vector and the scheduled date and time of the launch window opening. Updated Keplerian elements will be computed from the vector, based on changes to the scheduled or actual launch time. Phase 3D 1 93400U 00320.07549769 .00000002 00000-0 25142-4 0 12 2 93400 6.5000 257.0516 7357001 175.9721 5.5347 2.02548574 12 Satellite: Phase 3D Catalog number: 93400 Epoch time: 00320.07549769 Element set: 1 Inclination: 6.5000 deg RA of node: 257.0516 deg Eccentricity: 0.7357001 Arg of perigee: 175.9721 deg Mean anomaly: 5.5347 deg Mean motion: 2.02548574 rev/day Decay rate: 1.54500e-08 rev/day^2 Epoch rev: 1 Checksum: 252 Note that "93400" is a temporary Catalog Number. A Permanent Catalog Number and International Designator will be assigned when Phase 3D is launched. The satellite name will also be updated with the next sequential "OSCAR" designator. These Keplerian elements represent a pre-launch estimate of Phase 3D's initial orbit. The orbit will change significantly over the first year the spacecraft is on orbit. Updates will be provided for significant orbital changes. [Info via the AMSAT-NA News Service, and Ken Ernandes, N2WWD] * MIR TO BE DUMPED IN FEBRUARY * ================================ According to the Associated Press, a senior Cabinet official said late last month that the Mir space station will be dumped early next year, leaving no hope for the survival of the last symbol of Soviet space glory. Russian news agencies reported that plans are underway to bring the Mir down into the ocean at the end of February. Earlier this year, the station had won a new lease on life when the Netherlands-based MirCorp signed a lease agreement and provided some funds to keep it aloft, but Russian space officials have grown increasingly skeptical about MirCorp's ability to raise the money needed to keep the station in orbit. Mir has been quickly losing altitude since its latest crew left in June, and Russian space officials have said it's necessary to raise the orbit now so that the 130-ton station doesn't fall out of control. The uncontrollable plunge of Mir would be a nightmare that Russian space officials need to avoid at all costs, since heavy fragments of the station could conceivably fall on populated areas. The Russian government has pledged to devote its scarce space funds to the new International Space Station, a 16-nation project led by the United States, and has been under an intense pressure from NASA to dump Mir. [Info via Roy Neal, K6DUE] * ANTARCTICA DX SATELLITE TRIP * ================================ On October 31, Ronald Ross, KE6JAB, began a two month expedition in the mountains of Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. Ron will be assisting Polar Explorer Alain Hubert in his wall climb of Holtanna, a 5000 foot peak. Similar to his trips in the past, Ron will be taking along an Amateur Satellite Radio Station in order to transmit text and images from Antarctica back to a website in San Francisco. Messages will be distributed through a mailing list and images will be posted on the web site. Ron will try to send a travel report and a new image each day. In addition, Ron will be taking two APRS enabled weather stations with him. They have been built by Ron and 3 students of Professor Twiggs at Stanford University. The weather stations will transmit data via SUNSAT to an Antarctic ground station or igate. The weather data should show up on www.findu.com. Those not active on the Pacsats can subscribe to Ron's mailing list by following the instructions found at the following URL: http://www.thistle.org/pages%20folder/subscribe.html Please check out Ron's website at http://www.thistle.org to find out more about the trip. [Info via Ronald Ross, KE6JAB] * TIUNGSAT OPEN FOR USE * ========================= All commissioning has been completed on TiungSat and the spacecraft is now open for amateur use. Currently the downlink is operating at 9600bd, although this will be switched to 38k4 in the coming weeks. When this is done, the downlink will not be on at all times since we will operate using the high power transmitter which consumes considerably more power than the current transmitter. The same system as employed on UO-36 will be employed to allow amateurs to switch on the downlink from their groundstation as required. The imaging systems are still being calibrated and not all images will be available for download. The command stations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (9M2MCS) and Surrey, UK (G7UPN) will restrict downloading to images that are of reasonable quality. Controllers will only restrict access to images that are cloudy or otherwise used only for calibration purposes. Since the images from TiungSat should be the primary interest, uploading is restricted to command station use only. The imaging system has a Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) of approximately 70m in 3 bands, and a wide angle camera with a GSD of approximately 1km. The following information should be entered in your groundstation software for TiungSat -: Broadcast callsign MYSAT3-11 Uplink frequencies 145.850 MHz / 145.925 MHz Downlink frequency 437.325 MHz [Info via Chris Jackson, G7UPN] * RS-13 IN MODE KT * ==================== Several reports have confirmed that the RS-13 satellite is now operating in Mode KT, meaning that both the 2-meter and 10-meter downlinks are in operation. The 2-meter beacon is on 145.863 MHz (+/-), and the 2-meter transponder downlink seems to be between 145.860 MHz and 145.900 MHz. The uplink passband is between 21.260 MHz and 21.300 MHz. * FUJI-OSCAR-29 NEWS * ====================== On a pass at 0000 UTC on 07-Nov-00, OSCAR-29 was switched from the Digitalker mode, and into Mode JA. The currently operating schedule is as follows: Tue 07-Nov-00 -to- Thu 16-Nov-00 Mode JA Fri 17-Nov-00 -to- Sun 26-Nov-00 Mode JD 1200 bps PSK mailbox Mon 27-Nov-00 -to- Thu 07-Dec-00 Mode JA [Info via Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK] * ON-LINE DSP SATELLITE TRANSCEIVER PROJECT * ============================================= A mail reflector for those interested in designing a DSP-based satellite communications transceiver project has been established at qth.net. The list is a discussion area for RF, Software, System related project discussion. Additional message dedicated areas will also be activated as required. Please use this first area as one for general discussion topics relating to the project. To join the list - point your web browser to: http://www.qth.net The list name is dsp-radio If there are any questions, please e-mail Simon, GM4PLM at: simon@creoch.freeserve.co.uk If you are in any way interested in this project, please subscribe. It does not matter whether you have the technical skills to design and build a transceiver or not. There will be plenty to do for anyone who would like to help. The first things that need to be done are: 1) Promote the new email reflector. If you know someone who may be interested in such a project please encourage them to join us on the new reflector. If you are a member of another reflector, club, net, association, etc. and this project would be relevant, please help promote the idea. 2) Collect information on previous and current work done on software defined radios and DSP radios. No need to reinvent the wheel, lets build on what has already been done. If there are other groups with related projects, we should see if there are synergies that can be leveraged. 3) Start thinking about a wish list of features, specifications, etc. This project is by no means a done deal. It is in the early stages of determining it's feasibility. Hopefully, enough interest can be generated to find a team of volunteers to make it a reality. [Info via Simon Lewis, GM4PLM, and Darrell Bellerive, VE7CLA] * 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/ MAIL: John A. Magliacane, KD2BD Department of Engineering and Technology Brookdale Community College 765 Newman Springs Road Lincroft, New Jersey 07738 U.S.A. PACKET: KD2BD @ WB2COP.NJ.USA.NA INTERNET: kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net SATELLITE: KITSAT-OSCAR-25 <<=- SpaceNews: The first amateur newsletter read in space! -=>> <<=- Serving the planet (and beyond) since 1987 -=>> /EX