[jamsat-news:1816] ANS-194 AMSAT Weekly Bulletin

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-194


ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North
America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the
activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an
active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating
through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.


In this edition:
*  ISS has a Field Day
*  Waiting for Opportunity to Arrive
*  Falcon Rocket may Save Money
*  Loral To Build Critical Power Systems For Space Station
*  MOST Launches
*  Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule
*  Shuttle report delayed until August



SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-194.01
ISS has a Field Day

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 194.01 From AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD.  July 13, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-194.01

Astronaut works dozens of stations from ISS during Field Day: US
astronaut Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, worked more than three dozen stations from
NA1SS aboard the International Space Station during Field Day 2003 June
28-29. The contacts appear to have been made during at least two ISS
passes over North America. Operating the Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station equipment, Lu managed to contact 39
stations in the US, Canada and Mexico on 2-meter FM simplex. For more
information on ARISS, visit the ARISS Web site.


[ANS thanks ARRL for the above information.]



/EX





SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-194.02
Waiting for Opportunity to Arrive

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 194.02 From AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD.  July 13, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-194.02

All of the world's spacecraft that were supposed to begin their journey
to Mars this year are on their way.

NASA's second rover, Opportunity, flew into space from Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station at 11:18 p.m. Monday.

"We're still cautiously optimistic so far," NASA Administrator Sean
O'Keefe said after the launch.

The rover still has 305 million miles left to fly in its seven-month
coast to the red planet.

On Tuesday afternoon, it was about 200,000 miles away from Earth, not
quite as far as the moon. On Jan. 25, it is scheduled to enter the
Martian atmosphere and land on the surface, cushioned by a nest of
airbags. Its final resting place will be a location called Meridiani
Planum, a site observed to harbor the mineral hematite. This mineral
frequently forms in the presence of water, making it an intriguing
place for geologists to study through the rover's eyes.

As of 9 a.m. Tuesday, Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, had flown 47.9
million miles. It will aim for Gusev Crater Jan. 3. Gusev Crater has a
channel running out of it, and scientists believe it may have held a
lake.

Meanwhile, the European Space Agency called its Mars Express spacecraft
last weekend to make sure everything was humming along properly. Mars
Express with the Beagle 2 lander launched from Russia in early June. It
will try to make its first science measurements later this month.

Japan's Nozomi spacecraft is not faring as well. It took a hit by
radiation from a solar flare, and it is unclear how well it will work
once it reaches Mars. It launched from Japan in 1998 and is taking the
scenic route to Mars because it used up too much fuel.

NASA's next launch to Mars won't be until 2005, when the planets are
close again. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will try to find water
beneath Mars' surface from orbit.


[ANS thanks Florida Today for the above information.]


/EX





SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-194.03
Falcon Rocket may Save Money

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 194.03 From AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD.  July 13, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-194.03

As early as 2004, Cape Canaveral could see a new rocket take to its
skies.

Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk is planning to use the state- and
Navy-operated Pad 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to launch his
new Falcon rocket.

Vandenberg Air Force Base in California will get first dibs, though.
Musk's company, SpaceX, intends to send the Falcon on its first flight
from Vandenberg's Pad 3W as early as December, carrying a Department of
Defense communications satellite.

The two-stage, liquid-fueled rocket would carry light cargo to space.
Musk initially plans to charge $6 million for access to his rocket,
compared with about $20 million for the Pegasus.

Eighty percent of the Falcon could potentially be reused. The first
stage to fall away will be recovered from the ocean by a salvage
company. Later, he said he hopes to make the whole ship reusable. This
compares with about 90 percent of the shuttle that can be used again
after every flight.

He said a less expensive rocket should create a new market for people
who want to launch smaller satellites, but don't have $20 million to
spend.

This month, the Falcon will test fire its second-stage engine.

In September, SpaceX will put the Falcon through a launch simulation.
Musk said the rocket should be ready for flight by November.

Later, SpaceX could make the Falcon bigger to accommodate heavier
satellites. That could happen in as few as 31/2 years. If SpaceX
tried to go that route, Musk said, it would have the biggest
launcher on the planet. He said it could be possible to outfit
the rocket for humans.


[ANS thanks Florida Today for the above information.]


/EX



SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-194.04
Loral To Build Critical Power Systems For Space Station

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 194.04 From AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD.  July 13, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-194.04

Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), a subsidiary of Loral Space &
Communications has won a contract from Boeing NASA Systems, Houston,
Texas, to build 40 replacement batteries for the U.S. photovoltaic, or
power-producing, module of the International Space Station (ISS). These
replacement units will be used as spares or to replace older ISS
batteries currently on orbit.

SS/L's advanced nickel-hydrogen batteries are used to store electrical
energy for use during the 16 solar eclipse periods that the ISS
encounters during its daily orbits around the earth.


[ANS thanks Space Daily for the above information.]


/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-194.05
MOST Launches

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 194.05 From AMSAT HQ
SILVER SPRING, MD.  July 13, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-194.05

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) today confirmed the successful launch
of its first space telescope from launch facilities in northern Russia.
Called MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of STars), the telescope
was launched at 10:15 AM EDT, and released into orbit at 11:46 AM EDT.
MOST is packed in a microsatellite the size and mass of a suitcase,
thanks to innovative Canadian technology. Despite its modest
dimensions, MOST will make some specialized astronomical observations
beyond the capacity of any other instrument on Earth or in space. MOST
is designed to probe the interior of stars, set a limit on the age of
the Universe, and for the first time, detect light reflected by little
known planets beyond our Solar System.

The MOST satellite was built by the University of Toronto Institute for
Aerospace Studies, while the telescope itself was designed and built
by the University of British Columbia, with support from Toronto's
CRESTech and Spectral Applied Research. Dynacon Enterprises is the
prime contractor, which built the power system and developed the
satellite's pointing system, whose new, miniaturized reaction wheels
are what make it possible to put such a powerful instrument in such a
small package.

Once in orbit 820 km above the Earth's surface, MOST will circle the
Earth once every 100 minutes, at a speed of about 27,000 km per hour,
passing over ground stations in Toronto and Vancouver several times a day.

[ANS thanks Canadian Space Agency for the above information.]



/EX




SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-194.06
Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2003-07-08 15:00 UTC

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 194.06 From AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD.  July 13, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-194.06

The ARISS (a joint effort of AMSAT, the ARRL, NASA, the ARISS
internationalpartners including Canada, Russia, the European
Partners, and Japan) operations team wishes to announce the
following very tentative schedule for ARISS school contacts.
This schedule is very fluid and may change at the last minute.
Remember that amateur radio use on the ISS is considered secondary.
Please check the various AMSAT and ARISS webpages for the latest
announcements. Changes from the last announcement are noted with (***).
Also, please check MSNBC.com for possible live retransmissions
(http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp).  Listen for the ISS on the
downlink of 145.80 MHz.


For information about educational materials available from ISS partner
space Agencies, please refer to links on the ARISS Frequently Asked
Questions
page.

If you are interested in supporting an ARISS contact, then you must
fill in an application.  The ARISS operations mentor team will not
accept a direct request to support an ARISS contact.

You should also note that many schools think that they can request a
specific date and time.  It does not work that way.  Once an
application has been accepted, the ARISS mentors will work with the
school to determine a mutually agreeable date.

Websites that may be of interest include:

http://www.arrl.org/sarex
http://www.arrl.org/ariss
http://www.amsat.org
http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/index.html
http://ehb2.gsfc.nasa.gov/edcats/educator_guide/

Your completely filled out application should be returned to the
nearest coordinating ARISS region if your specific region is not
listed.  E-mail is the preferred method of submitting an application.

Here are the email addresses:
ARISS-Canada and all other countries not covered:
   ve2ka@rac.ca (Daniel Lamoureux VE2KA)
ARISS-Europe:  jh.hahn@gmx.net (J. Hahn, DL3LUM / PA1MUC)
ARISS-Japan and all Region 3 countries:
   iaru-r3@jarl.or.jp (Keigo Komuro JA1KAB)
ARISS-Russia: n2ww@attbi.com  (Valerie Agabekov N2WW/UA6HZ)
ARISS-USA:  ARISS@arrl.org (The American Radio Relay League)


ISS Expedition 7 crew:
Ed Lu KC5WKJ
Yuri Malenchenko RK3DUP

Euro Space Center Space Camp, Transinne, Belgium
Contact was a success Mon 2003-07-07 08:25 UTC via ON4ESC  (***)
Congratulations Euro Space Center Space Camp and Ed Lu KC5WKJ (***)

Webster High School, Webster, N.Y.
TBD UTC

Stanford University
Palo Alto Gunn High School, California
TBD UTC

Cornell University
TBD UTC

Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii
TBD UTC

Boulder High School
TBD

International Space School
TBD

Incarnate Word Academy Houston, TX
TBD

Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee, Tallahassee, FL
TBD UTC

Contact was not completed

Brussels Planetarium

Proposed questions for Brussels Planetarium are:
1. Can you really recognize Belgium by night?

2. Can you see the greenhouse effect on earth from aboard the ISS?

3. Is the ISS not too small to live comfortably? And has life in space
any influence on your physical and psychological condition?

4. Does it make a big difference to observe sun and planets from high
up there?

5. What impresses you most when you look to the earth?

6. Can you experience the big silence of the universe despite the noise
inside the ISS?

7. Since you don't have to overcome the steady pull down of gravity in
space, does this state of microgravity has an influence on the process of
getting tired?

8. What is the importance of doing experiments in space?

9. What would happen when you were in space without a protecting space
suit?

10. How was it on the first of July to celebrate your birthday in
space? Was there a little party onboard?

11. Is it easy onboard the ISS to live together with people from
different origins and cultures? And do you have any advice for people on
earth to
live in peace?

12. What do you experience when you are performing a spacewalk?

13. How long do night and day last up there? Does this cause problems?

14. Can natural disasters be forecast from space?

15. Do you experience the same feeling in space when you are hungry?

16. Can the ISS be damaged by space debris? And how can we solve this
problem?

17. Can one have muscular pain in the weightless circumstance of space?
If it does exist, does it feel the same as on earth?

18. How do you experience the notion of time while floating free in
space?

19. What is the less pleasant aspect of being onboard the ISS?

20. Are the space simulations on earth comparable to the real thing?


Turkey Space Camp
TBD

Soar Valley College, England

Neston Primary School, Corsham, England
TBD

Kagawa Junior High School, Ube City, Japan
TBD

The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list is now
available on the ARISS web site.  Several ways to get there.

Latest ARISS announcements and news
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt

Successful school list
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf

or

http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov

If you can not get into the GSFC site, then go directly to the RAC site.
(***)

click on English (sorry I don't know French)
you are now at http://www.rac.ca/ariss/
click on News


Currently the ARISS operations team has a list of over 60 schools that we
hope will be able to have a contact during 2003.   As the schedule becomes
more
solidified, we will be letting everyone know.  Current plans call for an
average
of one scheduled school contact per week.

[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, for the above information.]

/EX


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-194.07
Shuttle report delayed until August

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 194.07 From AMSAT HQ

SILVER SPRING, MD.  July 13, 2003
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-194.07

The Columbia shuttle disaster investigation has put back the
release of its final report because of delays in drawing up
the conclusions, the top inquiry official said Friday.
The report by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board was
to have been sent to Congress before the end of July.

But the board chairman, Admiral Harold Gehman, said the
document "sometime in August, middle or third week."

"It's more important that we get it right than we get
it quick," Gehman told a Washington press conference.

The report is to set out the sequence of events between
takeoff and the disaster as Columbia re-entered the Earth's
atmosphere, before its landing at Cape Canaveral base in Florida.

It is expected to recommend technical and organisation changes
but no date for a resumption of shuttle flights.


[ANS thanks Space Daily for the above information.]



/EX


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This week's ANS Editor:
Scott Lindsey-Stevens, N3ASA
n3asa@amsat.org


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