[jamsat-news:3252] [ans] ANS-334 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

E.Mike McCardel mccardelm @ gmail.com
2014年 11月 30日 (日) 12:03:34 JST


AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
ANS-334

The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and infor-
mation service of AMSAT North America, The Radio Amateur Satellite
Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space
including 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.

The news feed on http://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur
Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to:
ans-editor at amsat.org.

In this edition:

* CubeQuest Challenge, a NASA Centennial Challenges Competition
* 20 Meter AMSAT Net - 1900 UTC, Sundays
* W7O Wraps Up 10 Day AO-7 Commemoration
* Deadline Looms for Proposals to Host Scheduled ISS Contacts in 2015
* Design The Next AMSAT Satellite!
* ARISS News
* Satellite Shorts From All Over


SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-334.01
ANS-334 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 334.01
>From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD.
DATE November 30, 2014
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-334.01


CubeQuest Challenge, a NASA Centennial Challenges Competition

Registration now is open for NASA's Cube Quest Challenge, the
agency's first in-space competition that offers the agency's largest-
ever prize purse.

Competitors have a shot at a share of $5 million in prize money and
an opportunity to participate in space exploration and technology
development, to include a chance at flying their very own CubeSat to
the moon and beyond as secondary payload on the first integrated
flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS)
rocket.

"NASA's Cube Quest Challenge will engage teams in the development of
the new technologies that will advance the state of the art of
CubeSats and demonstrate their capabilities as viable deep space
explorers," said Michael Gazarik, associate administrator for NASA's
Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "Prize competitions like this engage the general public
and directly contribute to NASA's goals while serving as a tool for
open innovation."

Challenge objectives include designing, building and delivering
flight-qualified, small satellites capable of advanced operations
near and beyond the moon. The challenge and prize purse are divided
into three major areas:

Ground Tournaments:  $500,000 in the four qualifying ground
tournaments to determine who will have the ability to fly on the
first SLS flight;

Lunar Derby: $3 million for demonstrating the ability to place a
CubeSat in a stable lunar orbit and demonstrate communication and
durability near the moon; and

Deep Space Derby:  $1.5 million for demonstrating communication and
CubeSat durability at a distance greater than almost 2.5 million
miles (4,000,000 km), 10 times the distance from the Earth to the moon

The Cube Quest Challenge seeks to develop and test subsystems
necessary to perform deep space exploration using small spacecraft.
Advancements in small spacecraft capabilities will provide benefits
to future missions and also may enable entirely new mission
scenarios, including future investigations of near-Earth asteroids.

"Cube Quest is an important competition for the agency as well as
the commercial space sector," said Eric Eberly, deputy program
manager for Centennial Challenges at NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "If we can produce capabilities
usually associated with larger spacecraft in the much smaller
platform of CubeSats, a dramatic improvement in the affordability of
space missions will result, greatly increasing science and research
possibilities."

All teams may compete in any one of the four ground tournaments.
Teams that rate high on mission safety and probability of success
will receive incremental awards. The ground tournaments will be held
every four to six months and participation is required to earn a
secondary payload spot on SLS.

The Lunar Derby focuses primarily on propulsion for small spacecraft
and near-Earth communications, while the Deep Space Derby focuses on
finding innovative solutions to deep space communications using small
spacecraft. Together, these competitions will contribute to opening
deep space exploration to non-government spacecraft.

NASA's Centennial Challenges drive progress in aerospace technology -
- of significant value to the agency's missions -- and encourage
broad-based participation in aerospace research and development. The
challenges help find the most innovative solutions to technical
challenges through competition and cooperation. There have been 24
Centennial Challenges events since 2005. NASA has awarded more than
$6 million to 16 challenge-winning teams.

NASA's Centennial Challenges Program is part of the agency's Space
Technology Mission Directorate, which is responsible for innovating,
developing, testing and flying hardware for use on future NASA
missions. During the next 18 months, the directorate will make
significant new investments to address several high-priority
challenges for achieving safe and affordable deep space exploration.
For more information about the directorate, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech

The Centennial Challenges Program is managed at Marshall and the
Cube Quest Challenge is administered by the agency's Ames Research
Center in Mountain View, California. For more information on the Cube
Quest Challenge, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/cubequest

To learn more about NASA's challenges and citizen science efforts,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/solve

[ANS thanks David E. Steitz and NASA for the above information]


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20 Meter AMSAT Net - 1900 UTC, Sundays

There has been an uptick in participation on the AMSAT 20 Meter net
since it announced their new format which began 9 Nov.

The results have been encouraging.  Check-ins have gone from 2-3
before the change to 11 last Sunday, 23 Nov.  We did not run the net
on 16 Nov. due to excess competition with the ARRL Sweepstakes - SSB
Contest.  Comments have been favorable so we will continue the net
for a while and try to put out an occasional reminder.  Once again,
dust off your 20 Meter Rig, put up at least a dipole, and give us a
call.  The net meets at 1900 UTC, Sunday afternoons, on 14.282 MHz.
Bring your questions and comments - we'll try to provide a "Hole."

[ANS thanks Keith W5IU and Larry W7LB for the above information]


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W7O Wraps Up 10 Day AO-7 Commemoration

The W7O activity wrapped up on Monday afternoon November 24. Patrick
Stoddard WD9EWK/VA7EWK thanks the 24 operators who put W7O on the air
from locations all over the continental USA, on both HF and the
satellites, . These operators logged almost 2500 QSOs as W7O on
several HF bands, all of our current amateur satellites supporting
voice and CW (AO-7, AO-73, FO-29, SO-50), and even one QSO using the
ISS packet/APRS digipeater.

Patrick is in the process of designing the W7O QSL card.  It will be
a folding card, with photos and a brief history of AO-7. It will
incorporate the original AMSAT AO-7 QSL card issued for SWL reports
from the 1970s.  Patrick thanks Andy W5ACM "for providing me a high-
resolution scan of a clean card!  I have already received over 100
QSL requests in my mailbox, and Logbook of the World is reporting 781
W7O QSOs have been confirmed in that system.

"It has been fun to hear people talking about the oldest amateur
satellite still in operation. Some of W7O's HF operators were active
on AO-7 in the 1970s, and at least one had worked W7O before emailing
me to request being a W7O operator."

The following is the list of operators who put W7O on the satellites:

AA5PK
KB1PVH
KB1RVT
KB6LTY
KF5YXV (now W5CBF, also CO6CBF)
W1PA
W4UOO
W5PFG
W5RKN
WA3NAN
WD9EWK

The following stations are those who volunteered to work HF as W7O
from
all over the continental USA:.

AC0RA
K6FW
K7QI
KB6LTY
KC4LE
KF5YXV (now W5CBF)
KK5DO
KK6NWJ
N5HYP
NX9G
W1GIV
W2JV
W5PFG
W6GMT
W6ZQ
W7OO

Patrick is quick to pass on credit to where it is due. "Brock W6GMT
was on HF every morning during the 10 days from Minnesota.  Other
satellite operators helped by working many HF shifts. George W1GIV in
Connecticut worked many hours during the first weekend, logging
almost 400 stations across the USA and many other countries - and he
has never tried working the satellites!"

Whether an operator worked only one satellite pass, one 60-minute
shift on HF, or every single day during the 10-day event, the success
of this special-event station is owed to everyone who wanted to be a
part of W7O.  This worked out so much better than Patrick could have
hoped, and certainly better than W7O would have been if Patrick were
the only operator putting the call on satellite passes.

[ANS thanks Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK for the above information]


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Deadline Looms for Proposals to Host Scheduled ISS Contacts in 2015

Message to US Educators
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
Contact Opportunity

There are just two weeks left for submitting contact proposals for
the May 1 to December 31 period.

Please share the following with teachers, administrators and leaders
at your local schools, museums, science centers and scouting
organizations.

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program
is seeking formal and informal education institutions and
organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur
Radio contact with a crew member on board the ISS. ARISS anticipates
that the contact would be held between May 1, 2015 and December 31,
2015. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact
dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is
looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of
participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed
education plan.

THE DEADLINE TO SUMBIT A PROPOSAL IS DECEMBER 15, 2014.

The Opportunity
Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate
in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are
approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students and educators
to interact with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session.

An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via
Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space
station and classrooms and communities. ARISS contacts afford
education audiences the opportunity to learn firsthand from
astronauts what it is like to live and work in space and to learn
about space research conducted on the ISS. Students also will have an
opportunity to learn about satellite communication, wireless
technology, and radio science. Because of the nature of human
spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the
ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate
changes in contact dates and times.

Amateur Radio organizations around the world, NASA, and space
agencies in Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe sponsor this educational
opportunity by providing the equipment and operational support to
enable direct communication between crew on the ISS and students
around the world via Amateur Radio. In the US, the program is managed
by AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation) and ARRL (American
Radio Relay League) in partnership with NASA.

More Information
Interested parties can find more information about the program at
www.ariss.org and www.arrl.org/ARISS.
More details on expectations, audience, proposal guidelines and
proposal form, and dates and times of Information Sessions are
available at
www.arrl.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact.

Please direct any questions to ariss @ arrl.org.

[ANS thanks ARISS for the above information]


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Design The Next AMSAT Satellite!

At the 2014 AMSAT Space Symposium AMSAT Vice President - Engineering
Jerry Buxton announced the plan for the next generation of AMSAT
satellites. "The door is open for everyone, to submit their ideas.
AMSAT Engineering has a long term strategy and this is the first
step."

The Engineering long term strategy includes the following goals

Advancement of amateur radio satellite technical and communications
skills
Enhance international goodwill
Grow and sustain a skilled pool of amateur radio satellite engineers
Establish and maintain partnerships with educational institutions
Develop a means to use hardware common to all opportunities
With respect to the last goal Jerry said "Within the bounds of the
type of satellite it takes to achieve any of the various orbit
opportunities, let's consider in those plans the possibility of
developing a platform that can suit any and all orbits.  Perhaps a
modular CubeSat, using a common bus as we did in Fox-1, which gives
great flexibility in building and flying different sizes and
configurations of CubeSats with simple common-design hardware
changes."

Submissions should be thorough and contain the following
information.  The purpose of the proposal is not just in suggesting
an idea; being an all-volunteer team AMSAT needs your help in
carrying out the idea.

Design
Implementation - CubeSat platform
Estimated timeline
Cost - volunteer resources, commercial (COTS) units
Launch - how does it get to orbit
Strategy - how it fits into AMSAT's Engineering long term strategy
As mentioned above the idea should be based on the CubeSat platform.
This is the standard through which we will look for launches in the
foreseeable future.

In considering your proposal, Jerry encourages you to contact him
(n0jy at amsat dot org) for more details on the criteria. A guidebook
to the criteria is now available for download  at
http://tinyurl.com/ANS334-DesignGuide.  In particular, if you plan to
include a university as a partner to provide experiments or other
support and you are not representing that university, please contact
Jerry for assistance in working with our existing partners or
establishing a new partnership.

"Being amateur radio operators, it is easy for us to fall into a
particular trap because of our history of communicating with other
amateurs throughout the world" says Jerry. "Specifically, most people
who are not already involved in the world of satellite technology are
unaware of or simply overlook the provisions of the current ITAR and
soon to be EAR export rules particularly with regard to deemed
exports which requires governmental permission to discuss satellite
projects with foreign nationals."

While all amateurs are invited to submit ideas, U.S. amateurs must
take particular care of they choose to become involved in a
collaboration which includes individuals from other countries. It is
permissible to receive ideas and proposals from outside the U.S., but
it is not permitted for U.S. Persons to export or share design ideas
with other countries unless they have taken the proper steps to
insure compliance with ITAR and deemed export rules.

Additionally, those wishing to work on proposals should use care in
presenting themselves in their contacts. While the goal is for AMSAT
to build and launch the satellite, it is not an AMSAT project until
it is accepted by the AMSAT Board of Directors. It is acceptable to
represent yourself as members of a project team that plans to submit
a proposal to AMSAT for a future satellite project, as the AMSAT name
is well known.

"It is not our intention that ideas be submitted to AMSAT-NA which
would be more appropriately handled by an AMSAT organization in a
country where AMSAT is established. AMSAT-NA is seeking ideas from
amateurs in North America and will certainly consider ideas from
amateurs in countries which do not have an established AMSAT
organization or relationships with an existing AMSAT organization."

The deadline for submissions is May 30, 2015. After the submission
date the ideas will be screened for completeness and then reviewed by
a board consisting of the AMSAT Engineering Team, AMSAT Senior
Officer and Board of Directors representatives, and aerospace
industry members. The review board may modify or consolidate ideas
and will consider which meet the criteria to become a project based
on feasibility, cost, and the ability to bring value to the amateur
satellite community. The review process is expected to be completed
in September 2015.

For those ideas selected to become a project which satisfy the
requirements for an ELaNa launch, the idea authors will be asked to
work with the AMSAT Engineering Team on an ELaNa proposal.

The Engineering Team will then work on the details of execution for
the selected  project(s) and present a proposal to the AMSAT Board of
Directors in October 2015 for final approval to begin work. Once
approved, any ELaNa proposals will be submitted in November 2015 and
the project(s) will move forward.

Now is the time for YOU to begin working on the next AMSAT satellite!

[ANS thanks Jerry N0JY for the above information]


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ARISS News

>From 2014-11-10 to 2014-12-07, there will be no US Operational
Segment (USOS) hams on board ISS.  So any schools contacts during
this period will be conducted by the ARISS Russia team.

ARISS-US Contact Proposal Window for 2015 contacts Closed December 15

One more reminder that the window for submitting proposals for an US
ARISS contact during 2015 ends December 15. See the related post
above.

Interested parties can find more information about the program at
www.ariss.org and www.arrl.org/ARISS.

More details on expectations, audience, proposal guidelines and
proposal form, and dates and times of Information Sessions are
available at

www.arrl.org/hosting-an-ariss-contact.

Please direct any questions to ariss @ arrl.org.

All are encouraged to share this information with schools and other
educational entities. A simple conversation with a teacher or an
administrator can make all the difference in getting a school
involved in the once in a lifetime opportunity.

[ANS thanks ARISS, Charlie AJ9N and David AA4KN for the above
information]


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Satellite Shorts From All Over

+ ARRL Public Relations Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X, is featured as he
  hunts satellite DX from the ARRL Headquarters station, W1HQ.
  During a pass that brought the FO-29 satellite up the middle
  of the Atlantic, Sean worked DF6WE on CW on November 19.
  See the video at
  https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152636637992408

  [ANS thanks the ARRL Facebook Page for the above information]

+ Artsat2 Ham radio deep space launch postponed
  http://amsat-uk.org/2014/11/28/ham-radio-deep-space-launch-delayed/

  [ANS thanks ASMSAT-UK for the above information]

+ Popular Electronics magazine archive from the 1950's through the
  1980's has been made available online.
  They are PDF files:

  http://tinyurl.com/ANS334-Poptronics

  [ANS thanks americanradiohistory.com for the above information]


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/EX

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the
President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining
donors to AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive addi-
tional benefits. Application forms are available from the AMSAT
Office.

Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership
at one-half the standard yearly rate. Post-secondary school students
enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the stu-
dent rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status.
Contact Martha at the AMSAT Office for additional student membership
information.

73,
This week's ANS Editor,
EMike McCardel, KC8YLD
kc8yld at amsat dot org
_______________________________________________
Via the ANS mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA
http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/ans



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