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[jamsat-news:1215] * SpaceNews 31-Jan-00 *
SB NEWS @ AMSAT $SPC0131
* SpaceNews 31-Jan-00 *
BID: $SPC0131
=========
SpaceNews
=========
MONDAY JANUARY 31, 2000
* JAWSAT LAUNCH *
=================
The third attempt to launch JAWSAT (Joint Air Force Academy-Weber State
University Satellite) on January 27, 2000 was a success with a launch
occurring at 03:03 UTC. The Orbital Sciences Minotaur rocket carried
the JAWSAT, FalconSat, ASUSat 1 and OPAL (Orbiting Picosat Automatic
Launcher) carrying STENSAT, MASAT (Miniature Amateur Radio Satellite),
DARPA/Aerospace Corp Picosat and Artemis Picosat spacecraft into earth
orbit. The launch took place from the SSI Commercial Spaceport at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
The following are Keplerian orbital elements for these new satellites:
ASUSAT-1
1 26061U 00004A 00029.19550033 -.00038946 00000-0 -13890-1 0 148
2 26061 100.2312 226.1494 0038028 184.6548 175.4393 14.34012129 303
OPAL
1 26062U 00004B 00029.05605640 .00008094 00000-0 28927-2 0 124
2 26062 100.2285 225.9862 0038145 184.5401 175.5432 14.33998816 272
OCS
1 26063U 00004C 00029.05578802 -.00015952 00000-0 -56408-2 0 87
2 26063 100.2270 225.9843 0037718 184.2683 175.8186 14.34168452 275
FALCONSAT
1 26064U 00004D 00029.05615445 -.00001789 00000-0 -61584-3 0 112
2 26064 100.2273 225.9853 0038721 184.2827 175.8151 14.33903719 279
JAWSAT
1 26065U 00004E 00029.05563575 .00002078 00000-0 75457-3 0 90
2 26065 100.2268 225.9856 0037369 184.4063 175.6853 14.34301557 278
MINOTAUR R/B
1 26066U 00004F 00029.05488793 .00003174 00000-0 11299-2 0 89
2 26066 100.2306 225.9859 0035244 183.1533 176.9435 14.34860147 289
JAWSAT related Keplerian elements may be found at:
http://ssdl.stanford.edu/opal/Operations/keps.txt
Beacon frequencies for these new satellites are believed to be as follows:
JAWSAT:
437.075 MHz - 9600 baud FSK - MBL on 30 secs / off 250 secs 1.6 watts
437.175 MHz - 9600 baud FSK - MBL on 30 secs / off 60 secs 0 - 8 watts
ASUSAT:
436.500 MHz GMSK (9600 baud FSK)
436.700 MHz downlink / 145.820 MHz uplink
OPAL:
437.100 MHz 9600 FSK
STENSAT:
436.625 MHz downlink / 145.840 MHz uplink (voice/1200 baud AFSK)
#7464464 - (# key followed by the digits) to ping a packet once
#7370563 - to report an extended packet.
Artemis:
437.100 MHz 1200 AFSK
STENSAT and Artemis were not yet deployed from OPAL at the time this
report was issued.
* AMSAT-OSCAR-16 NEWS *
=======================
Russell Platt, WJ9F, reports that AO-16 is back in the safe hands of PHT
(Pacsat Housekeeping Task). This task manages the battery charging during
sunlit periods and manages the decay during eclipse periods. It also
includes safeguards to protect the batteries (turns off S-band first,
if on, then all transmitters if voltage is too low). It will also turn
on the 70-cm transmitter, if off, when the batteries are charged too high.
All of these safeguards were exercised last week. Russ has been trying to
keep the S-band transmitter on except when loading software. The S-band
transmitter is always on at full power so it draws a continuous load on
the batteries. Its shut off target voltage is higher in PHT than the
70-cm transmitters. So lately with only S-band on, the shut off
target voltage is reached, shutting off S-band. During the next sunlit
portion of the orbit, the batteries are charged high, turning on the
70-cm transmitter.
These targets are resettable, but after 10 years of use, controllers are
trying to be very careful about how far down they bring the batteries.
Russ has been running WOD (Whole Orbit Data) to watch the batteries during
S-band only operation. He is also reloading the software to bring the file
server back on line soon. Digipeater mode is also available when not
loading.
[Info via Russ Platt, WJ9F, AO-16 Command Team]
* PHASE 3D NEWS *
=================
The Phase 3D satellite is now located in the clean room at the Ariane 5
Final Assembly Building at the AR5 launch preparation area in Kourou.
It should be there in perfect shape until the start of the launch campaign.
With all systems turned off and flight batteries uncharged, no personnel
are required on location during ths period.
[Info via Peter, DB2OS AMSAT-DL]
* FUJI-OSCAR-29 NEWS *
======================
The FO-29 command station of JARL has announced the following operating
schedule for FO-29 during the month of Feburary and the first part of March:
- Jan 31 (Mon) JA
Feb 1 (Tue) - Feb 6 (Sun) JD1200 mailbox
Feb 7 (Mon) - Feb 21 (Mon) JA
Feb 22 (Tue) - Feb 27 (Sun) JD1200 mailbox
Feb 28 (Mon) - Mar 5 (Mon) JA
[Info via Kazu Sakamoto, JJ1WTK]
* KITSAT-OSCAR-23 NEWS *
========================
KO-23's transmitter was shut down late last week due to a poor power budget.
All on-board files are intact and stored on the satellite. A transmitter
shutdown is expected every two months during every maximum eclipse period.
[Info via KAIST / KO-23 Control Station]
* 8J1RL VIA OSCAR-10 *
======================
Kimio, 8J1RL, has informed us that his stay in Antarctica has been
extended until February 5, 2000. He may be available for contact with
stations in North Amercia via OSCAR-10 during the following mutual
visibility windows:
30-Jan-00: 1221-1345 UTC
31-Jan-00: 1015-1315 UTC
01-Feb-00: 1015-1130 UTC
02-Feb-00: 0530-0930 UTC
03-Feb-00: 0400-0911 UTC
04-Feb-00: 0315-0900 UTC
[Info via Yoshi Esaki, JA6BX]
* SATELLITE SOFTWARE UPDATE *
=============================
The following are the result of comments sent to Ray Hoad concerning
various satellite tracking programs in use by the Amateur community.
1) No new word on when InstantTrack 1.5 will be released.
2) For Linux users, Jeff KB6IBB, reports that mtrack v0.2.2, 13 June 99
release is available on the SuSE 6.3 release of Linux. It is located on
disk 3 under ham1 directory. It is written by Jonathan Naylor HB9/G4KLX
(g4klx@g4klx.demon.co.uk). Jeff has tested last few sets of NORAD data
(KEPs) and found the map to be placing the satellites in about the same
place the tracking table is showing they should be. Jeff has also
compared the mtrack map to maps from the Internet tracking services,
and found them to be close enough for ham work.
3) Cedar Ryan ZS6JQ/3DA0JQ downloaded the "CVITK" program (this is the
KEP data formatter for InstantTrack) as well as WinOrb v 3.6. After
installing the latest version of WinOrb and running the CVITK utility
for InstantTrack, the results were compared against each other and they
checked out perfectly. So, it seems as if both "CVITK" and WinOrb v3.6
are right on for Y2K.
3) Ray, W2RS, notes that AMSAT-UK's widely-used MS-DOS tracking program
SATSCAN II computes accurate tracking data for the current year, but it
translates keps with "00" in the "year" field as 1900. Dennis Kitchen,
G0FCL, of AMSAT-UK says that while there is no automatic "fix" currently
available, users can load current-year keps into SATSCAN II in the usual
way, and then edit them (using the "EDIT KEP FILE" command from the menu)
to change the "1900" date to "2000." The program will then work normally.
Ray, W2RS, confirms he tried this and it works.
4) Wayne Roth, WA2N/5 has announced that he has made the satellite
scheduling/tracking program SatSked Y2K compatible. It is no longer
necessary to purchase a password from AMSAT since SatSked is now freeware.
It has been tested for 20 days by multiple people with no bugs reported.
SatSked version 1.970 may be downloaded from:
http://members.tripod.com/wayneroth/ss1970.zip
* THANKS! *
===========
Thanks to all who recently sent messages of appreciation for SpaceNews,
especially:
James Burrell 9H1IF
* 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 @ N2TDU.NJ.USA.NA
INTERNET: kd2bd@amsat.org, magliaco@email.njin.net
SATELLITE: AMSAT-OSCAR-16, KITSAT-OSCAR-25
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