SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-242.01 AO-40 Orbit Observations AMSAT News Service Bulletin 242.01 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 29, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-242.01 Peter Guelzow, DB2OS, reports that Victor Kudielka, OE1VKW did an analysis some weeks ago and was the first to discover some odd changes in the Mean Motion of AO-40. It appears that the eccentricity may have changed, but it is also influenced by other effects and can not be used alone to evaluate possible changes in AO-40's orbit. Viktor has some expanded diagrams of mean motion and eccentricity, as well as for the heights of peri- and apogee and their velocities on his home page: http://cacofonix.nt.tuwien.ac.at/~oe1vkw/ao40/2004.html Viktor noted, "I am unable to judge which points are just imprecise measurements and what are the influences of data smoothing or other manipulations. The only big enough effect is the change in mean motion" Peter continues, "If you look carefully on the data, you will see that the 'orbit change' already happened *before* the sudden battery event. We can only speculate, that it is the battery. It could be indeed also some remaining fuel?" Peter added. "The 'thrust' phase is also much longer than the battery event, not only a few hours or days. Perhaps,could be smoothing/manipulation of the NORAD data too. There is room for a lot of speculation." Peter concluded, "Assuming the S/C mass to be 400kg, than this change is due to an impulse of 40 kg m/s or equal to 5 minutes of hot Arcjet firing.I have no idea if the battery is capable to do this. Indeed, if it is shortened it will get glowing hot and vent everything." [ANS thanks Peter, DB2OS for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-242.02 ARISS in Cross-band Repeat Mode AMSAT News Service Bulletin 242.02 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 29, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-242.02 The ARISS program is pleased to announce that the amateur radio equipment aboard the International Space Station is now operating in cross-band repeat mode. We realize that many of you will miss the packet-operating mode. However, cross-band repeat allows further experimentation of the ISS amateur radio system The downlink for this operating mode remains the same, so listen for the station on 145.80 MHz. The new uplink frequency is 437.80 MHz. All frequencies are subject to Doppler shifting. For further information on working satellites and adjusting for Doppler shift, please review Emily Clark's (W0EEC) excellent presentation on AMSAT's website, http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/information/faqs/Intro_sats.pdf ARISS is an international educational outreach program with US participation from NASA, AMSAT (The Amateur Satellite Radio Corp.), and the American Radio Relay League. ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities experience, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters' interest in science, technology, and learning. Further information on the ARISS programme is available on the website http://www.rac.ca/ariss [ANS thanks Scott, N3ASA and Frank,KA3HDO for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-242.03 ARISS Status - 23 August 2004 AMSAT News Service Bulletin 242.03 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 29, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-242.03 1.Illinois School Contact Successful Challenger Learning Center at Prairie Aviation Museum in Bloomington, Illinois experienced a successful contact with Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, on Monday, August 16, at 1805 UTC. Fourteen year old Roxie Able, KC9CSV,was on the microphone using W9AML, and Grant Zehr, AA9LC, acted as the control operator. Mike answered thirteen questions put to him by the students. Two TV stations, one radio station, and several newspapers attended the event. The ARRL ran a web story on the contact. ÒAstronaut Tells Youngsters He's Craving Fried Chicken,Ó can be found at: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/08/19/3/?nc=1 This site also provides a link to the audio of the contact. Another article was run on BloomingtonÕs Pantagraph site. See ÒLong-distance chat,Ó at: http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/081704/new_20040817006.shtml 2.Upcoming School Contact Upper St. Clair High School in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania has been scheduled for a contact with the ISS on Friday, August 27 at 13:46 UTC. This school is a crew pick of Mike FinckeÕs. 3.ARISS International Meeting Held The monthly ARISS International Teleconference was held on Tuesday, August 17. Agenda items discussed included the AMSAT/ARISS joint meetings to be held on October 8 Ð 13 in Arlington, Virginia. A roundtable panel discussion for ARISS participants as part of the AMSAT meeting is planned. Kenneth Ransom proposed that an ARISS special event be held during the December/January timeframe similar to the Field Day activity held in the U.S. in June, but with international participation. Such an event would not only be enjoyed by ham radio operators, but would also be a boost to the crewÕs spirits during the holiday season. ARISS Delegate Gaston Bertels is working with ESTECÕs ISS Utilization Service to see how they are interfacing with the NASA Headquarters Education Office regarding the possibility of setting up a yearly activity for Dutch schools relating to space. This would be funded by the Dutch government. Gaston is working to have ARISS included in the planning. This yearly event in the Netherlands would culminate in a school contact with the ISS. 4.AMSAT/ARISS Planning Meeting Held A planning meeting for the AMSAT Symposium and ARISS International Delegate meeting was held on Saturday, August 21. Carl Walz has agreed to be the AMSAT banquet speaker. Carl was involved in the installation of some of the antennas on the Service Module and will discuss NASAÕs Vision for Space Exploration as part of his talk. 5.ARISS QSL Cards of Note The ARRL received a request for a radio contact confirmation card (called a QSL card) from a sight-impaired ham radio operator. Mark Spencer met the request by using ARRL's Brailler machine to fill out the ARISS QSL card. Another ham radio operator wrote on his QSL card: "Although IÕve been a ham operator for 36 years, this radio contact with the ISS got me more excited than IÕve been about ham radio in some time." [ANS thanks the ARISS Team for the above information] /EX SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-242.04 This Week's News in Brief AMSAT News Service Bulletin 242.04 >From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD. August 29, 2004 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-242.04 ** The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft has successfully performed its scheduled Periapsis Raising Manoeuvre. A 51 minute burn of the primary engine corrected the spacecraft trajectory to place it on a course to encounter Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in October. The manoeuvre also raised the periapsis by over 400,000 km.--SpaceDaily ** An ESA-designed house that uses technology designed for space could become the basis of the new German Antarctic station, Neumayer-III. The new station has to meet stringent laws set up to protect the Antarctic environment, which is where the use of space technology comes in. --SpaceDaily ** Australian scientists predict that a revolutionary new way to harness the power of the sun to extract clean and almost unlimited energy supplies from water will be a reality within seven years. Using special titanium oxide ceramics that harvest sunlight and split water to produce hydrogen fuel, the researchers say it will then be a simple engineering exercise to make an energy-harvesting device with no moving parts and emitting no greenhouse gases or pollutants. --SpaceDaily ** A newfound planet detected by a small, 4-inch-diameter telescope demonstrates that we are at the cusp of a new age of planet discovery. Soon, new worlds may be located at an accelerating pace, bringing the detection of the first Earth-sized world one step closer. "This discovery demonstrates that even humble telescopes can make huge contributions to planet searches," says Guillermo Torres of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), a co-author on the study. It was made using the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey (TrES), a network of small, relatively inexpensive telescopes designed to look specifically for planets orbiting bright stars. --SpaceDaily /EX