AMSAT NEWS SERVICE ANS-292

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:

• ARISS-US Accepting Proposals To Host Scheduled ISS Contacts In 2015
• Design the Next AMSAT Satellite!
• Russian 'Smart' Mini-Satellites to Go Into Orbit in 2016
• UKSA announces CubeSat payload opportunity
• 4M (Manfred Memorial Moon Mission)
• Space Shuttle Thermal Protective Tiles Available for Educational Use
• HamTV Bulletin #15
• ARISS News
• Satellite Shorts From All Over

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-292 01 ANS-292 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 292 01 From AMSAT HQ KENSINGTON, MD DATE October 19, 2014 To All RADIO AMATEURS BID: $ANS-292 01

ARISS-US Accepting Proposals To Host Scheduled ISS Contacts In 2015

You are encouraged to share the following "Message to US Educators" with teachers, administrators and leaders at your local schools, museums, science centers and scouting organizations

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

Call for Proposals Proposal Window October 17 - December 15, 2014

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 at arrl dot org

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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 for more details on the criteria 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 AMSAT-NA for the above information]

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Russian 'Smart' Mini-Satellites to Go Into Orbit in 2016

The first group of Russian "smart" mini-satellites should be launched into orbit in 2016, Mikhail Sonkin, the Deputy Governor of Russia's Tomsk Region, said Wednesday

"The signing of an agreement on the creation of an association to carry out projects in the sphere of the development of groups of miniature satellites is in progress The launch [of the satellites] is planned for 2016," Sonkin, who is responsible for the scientific and educational complex and innovation policy in the region, said at the Open Innovations Forum in Moscow

A number of Russian universities and space industry companies are expected to join the association, which will work on creating software to control groups of mini-satellites and improve their interaction with each other

According to Sonkin, members of the association, which will include Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) and Tomsk State University (TSU), will also be working on developing new materials for the space industry and on establishing communication networks in remote areas

Last month, Chairman of the Presidium of the Tomsk Scientific Center of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Psakhie announced that Russian scientists were planning to create unique mini-satellites capable of group interaction

The satellites, similar to CubeSat developed in the United States, would be able to self-educate and repair each other without leaving the Earth's orbit

Source: RIA Novosti

[ANS thanks SpaceDaily com for the above information]

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UKSA announces CubeSat payload opportunity

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) has announced an opportunity to fly payloads on the 3U CubeSat AlSat-1N

AlSat-Nano is primarily an education programme, its top level objective is to teach Algerian students how to design, build and operate a 3U CubeSat The programme involves a number of Algerian graduate students who will be hosted at the Surrey Space Centre (University of Surrey) and focuses on the development of the CubeSat as a hands-on learning exercise for the students, to demonstrate the practical implementation of this type of low cost space technology

As well as the practical element of the programme there will be a focus on research modules around the use of low cost nano-satellite technologies and applications in developing nations such as Algeria, which would help to create sustainable growth and have practical uses such as earthresource management (agriculture, water), atmospheric monitoring, and disaster management

The design and build of the nano-satellite will take place at Surrey Space Centre Final assembly, integration and verification will take place at the ASAL satellite development facility in Oran, Algeria Operations will be carried out from Oran also

The bus will be built using hardware sourced from UK suppliers and the CubeSat will also carry payloads which will be supplied by the UK CubeSat community These payloads will be selected in a competitive process following an Announcement of Flight Opportunity which will be issued in December 2014

The precise interface specifications will be developed during the first trimester of the project to be integrated in the Announcement of Opportunity, however it is foreseen that a maximum volume of 1U (10cm x 10cm x 10cm) and maximum mass of 1kg will be available for payloads The selection of the payloads will be carried out in early 2015 via a selection panel

Payloads must be ready for functional testing and integration by September 2015 Launch will be in Q2 2016 Because of the educational and collaborative nature of the programme there are two further specific points that should be noted: * Payload providers must be actively engaged in all programme reviews and an active participant in the consortium * Payload providers must be willing to share payload data with the programme for research purposes, and to receive interpreted payload data via the ASAL ground segment in Oran, Algeria

Submissions should be sent to Ryan King, UK Space Agency - ryan king@ukspaceagency bis gsi gov uk with 'AlSat-Nano RFI' as the subject line The deadline for responses is 12 noon, November 14th 2014 Submissions received after this time will not be read

RFI PDF http://tinyurl com/ANS292-AlSat-Nano-Info

UK Space Agency Announcement http://tinyurl com/ANS292-alsat-nano-payload

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

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4M (Manfred Memorial Moon Mission)

4M or Manfred Memorial Moon Mission is a mission dedicated to LuxSpace founder, Prof Manfred Fuchs, who died early this year The mission is a lunar flyby of a spacecraft that is attached to the last stage of a Chinese Long March 3C rocket The launch is scheduled for October 23, 2014 at 1800 UTC

Beijing plans to launch a Lunar spacecraft on a journey lasting 196 hours that should take it around the Moon before returning and re- entering the Earth's atmosphere It will carry a 14 kg payload known as 4M-LXS which was developed at LuxSpace

The 4M-LXS amateur radio payload will transmit on 145 980 MHz +/- 2 9kHz (-40°C to +125°C), Doppler max: -2200Hz, +1000Hz The continuous transmissions will start 4670s (77 8 minutes) after launch (-0, +600s) Five successive 1 minute sequences are sent during the 5 minutes cycle The digital mode JT65B will be used, this can be decoded by radio amateurs using the free WJST software, there will also be 'human readable' tone transmissions See the transmit sequence description on page 14 of 4M Mission: a Lunar FlyBy experiment available at https://ukamsat files wordpress com/2014/09/lxs-4m-eme2014-a4-v3 pdf

During the lunar flyby, the range will be 399,636 km at the most and the distance to the Moon will be between 12,000 and 24,000 km depending on the final injection vector The transmitter produces 1 5 watts to a simple Monopole antenna which should give a Signal to Noise ratio ( S/N) comparable to amateur moon bounce (EME) signals at the Earth's surface

LuxSpace encourages radio amateurs around the world to receive the transmissions and send in data There will be a number of Experiments and Contests with prizes to the winners in each experiment and category Details are given on page 19 of 4M Mission: a Lunar FlyBy experiment

A Java client will be made available to automatically send the WSJT ALL TXT and the decoded txt files to a central database

The orbiter is one of the test models for Beijing's new lunar probe Chang'e-5, which will be tasked with landing on the moon, collecting samples and returning to Earth The launch is aimed at testing the technologies that are vital for the success of Chang'e-5 The orbiter will be launched into Lunar Transfer Orbit (LTO) then will perform a flyby around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere after 196 hours (9 days)

The orbiter arrived by air in Xichang, Sichuan on Sunday, August 10 and was then transported to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center

The integration of the LX0OHB-4M amateur radio payload was completed on Sunday night, October 12 and is now ready to launch

The onboard clock has been adjusted to start JT65B (145 980 MHz) at the UTC minute +/-1 second It is likely to drift during the mission, and manual offset introduction will be required after a week or so The launch date is October 23 at 1800 UTC

Beginning of transmission of 4M will start between 1917 UTC and 1927 UTC Refer to the provided maps and animations links in the blog section (see also older messages) to determine your visibility Alternatively, use the 'tracking' section where you can compute your tracking elements by introducing your geographic coordinates The table can be copied/pasted into a text file As the apparent movement will be close (and closer) to the one one of the Moon, manual pointing is easy but for the largest arrays

The link budget is quite tight, but the first hours should give comfortable signals QSB is to be expected

As JT65B is used: please remind those not yet too familiar with it that the receiver must not be tuned during the transmission A dedicated webpage is being written to detail the procedure

A dedicated java application is also available to automatically transmit the decoded messages to the 4M website and ease the data collection (Thanks to LSE Space) Alternatively, you can also send the decoded messages by eMail, sending the ALL txt file

For those not wishing to use JT65B, please record the signals (11025s/s, 8or 16 bits, mono), taking care not to saturate the recording and NO MP3 please

SpectrumLab is an excellent choice, although some may wish to use simpler recording software

You can imagine that the team is quite eager to receive the first reports, so, do not hesitate to mail immediately, send decoded messages or even phone or text me at +352 661 678 986

Our friends of IC CMalaga are also quite eager to receive the results of their radiation dosimeter experiment

Basic rules of the contest have been delineated in the blog section Complete rules will be published soon

Stay tuned on our website or Facebook page

The following is a tentative set of orbital elements that should remain valid from the launch to at least up to the October 27 when using usual classical and simple tracking software which does not integrate Moon

1 99999U 14298 79728009 00000066 00000-0 00000-0 0 00006 2 99999 030 6553 295 6956 9746689 147 2577 071 9585 00 10600338000010

The following set is to be used after the flyby from October 28 onwards

1 99999U 14301 79728009 00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 00009 2 99999 049 9434 067 2017 6639865 045 9865 124 5019 00 06612018000010

Details on receiving signals from the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M) can be found at http://moon luxspace lu/receiving-4m/

Ghislain Ruy LX2RG Email ruy@luxspace lu with "4M Amateur" in the subject

Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M) http://moon luxspace lu/ Facebook https://www facebook com/LuxSpaceSarl

The launch will be broadcast by CNTV/CCTV: http://www cntv cn/ or http://english cntv cn/ or http://english cntv cn/live/p2p/index shtml

Information animations and some JT65B test files at http://tinyurl com/ANS292-Animations

AMSAT-UK http://amsat-uk org/ Facebook https://www facebook com/amsatuk Twitter https://twitter com/AMSAT_UK

[ANS thanks LuxSpace lu, AMSAT-UK and Southgate ARN for the above information]

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Space Shuttle Thermal Protective Tiles Available for Educational Use

NASA invites eligible U S educational institutions and museums to request space shuttle thermal protective tiles and other special items offered on a first-come, first-served basis while quantities last Organizations previously allocated thermal protective tiles may request an additional three tiles

There will be a nominal shipping fee that must be paid online with a credit card To make a request for special items online, visit http://tinyurl com/ANS292-ShuttleTiles

Questions about this opportunity should be directed to GSAXcessHelp@gsa gov

[ANS thanks NASA Education Express Message -- Oct 16, 2014 for the above information]

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HamTV Bulletin #15

Ham Video reception with low gain antenna

Tonino Giagnacovo IZ8YRR did an experiment with a low gain antenna during the Ham Video commissioning

Tonino wrote an article about this experiment, which was published in Radio Rivista, the magazine of ARI, Associazione Radioamatori Italiani, the Italian IARU society

Tonino translated his article in English It is now available on the ARISS-Europe website: www ariss-eu org

Please see left column

Thanks to Tonino for making his article available in English

73, Gaston Bertels - ON4WF ARISS-Europe chairman

[ANS thanks Gaston ON4WF for the above information]

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ARISS News

ARISS-US is Accepting Proposals To Host Scheduled ISS Contacts In 2015 See lead story above or visit http://www arrl org/hosting-an-ariss-contact

• A Successful contact was made between Team Sky and Rocket (NPO Sora-To-Rocket-Dan), Aichi, Japan and Astronaut Gregory Wiseman KF5LKT using callsign NA1SS The contact began 2014-10-09 09:00 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes Contact was direct via 8J2YSM ARISS Mentor was 7M3TJZ

• A Successful contact was made between Pilton Bluecoat School, Barnstaple, United Kingdom and Astronaut Gregory Wiseman KF5LKT using callsign NA1SS The contact began 2014-10-08 10:08 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes Contact was telebridged via W6SRJ ARISS Mentor was MØXTD

• A Successful contact was made between Indiana Area School District, Indiana, PA, USA and Astronaut Alexander Gerst KF5ONO using callsign NA1SS/IRØISS The contact began 2014-10-17 16:41 UTC and lasted about nine and a half minutes Contact was telebridged via IK1SLD ARISS Mentor was AJ9N

Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule

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

Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school events is 931 Each school counts as 1 event Total number of ARISS ISS to earth school contacts is 909 Each contact may have multiple schools sharing the same time slot Total number of ARISS supported terrestrial contacts is 46

A complete year by year breakdown of the contacts may be found in the file http://www amsat org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews rtf

QSL information may be found at: http://www ariss org/qsl-cards html

ISS callsigns: DPØISS, NA1SS, OR4ISS, RSØISS

The successful school list has been updated as of 2014-10-10 06:30 UTC

http://www amsat org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools rtf

Check out the Zoho reports of the ARISS contacts https://reports zoho com/ZDBDataSheetView cc?DBID=412218000000020415

Exp 40/41 on orbit Maxim Suraev Gregory Wiseman KF5LKT Alexander Gerst KF5ONO

Exp 41/42 on orbit Barry Wilmore Alexander Samokutyayev Elena Serova

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

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Satellite Shorts From All Over

• Yes, it is rocket science a nasty place to ride

Bob Bruninga WB4APR offers the following link of interest

To see the violence that a cubesat has to go through, here is a test we did today on a power supply board

http://aprs org/psat/Vibe-coil-test1724 MOV (1 meg file)

It failed even before we got to the 22G requirement!

[ANS thanks Bob WB4APR for the above information]

• Why radio hams should consider 3D printing

Mike Grauer, Jr, KE7DBX, asks radio amateurs to think about how 3D printers can be used in home construction

He says:

As a member of the ham radio community, I have always been fascinated by the maker mindset which has existed since the early days of radio From making radio equipment from scratch, to kits and even modifying commercially available equipment, the maker movement and radio go hand in hand

The 3D printing community shares many traits with the ham radio movement At the heart of it all is making, creating and inventing And just like ham radio operators, those involved with 3D printing are constantly learning new technical skills that can be used in other areas of our lives

Read the full story at http://www inside3dp com/ham-operators-consider-3d-printing/

[ANS thanks Southgate ARN for the above information]

• New Website For Indian Amateur Satellite Organization

Posted by our UK friends on Southgate

The Indian amateur satellite organisation have launched a new website

The site describes two projects which AMSAT-India is currently working on, a 435/145 MHz linear transponder and a 435 MHz CubeSat communication sub system

Some back issues of the AMSAT-India newsletter are available for download

Web http://amsatindia org/

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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

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Via the ANS mailing list courtesy of AMSAT-NA http://amsat org/mailman/listinfo/ans