AMSAT NEWS SERVICE<br />ANS-061<br /><br /><br />ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North<br />America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on the<br />activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an<br />active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating<br />through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.01<br />Pioneer 10, SK<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.01 From AMSAT HQ<br /><br />SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2003<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-061.01<br /><br />Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to venture out of the solar system,<br />has fallen silent after traveling billions of miles from Earth on a<br />mission that has lasted nearly 31 years, NASA said Tuesday.<br /><br />What was apparently the spacecraft's last signal was received Jan. 22<br />by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Network. At the time,<br />Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth; the signal, traveling at<br />the speed of light, took 11 hours and 20 minutes to arrive.<br /><br />The signal and the two previous signals were very faint. The Deep Space<br />Network heard nothing from Pioneer 10 during a final attempt at<br />contact on Feb. 7. No more attempts are planned.<br /><br />Pioneer 10 was launched March 2, 1972, on a 21-month mission. It became<br />the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt and the first<br />to obtain close-up images of Jupiter. In 1983, it became the first<br />manmade object to leave the solar system when it passed the orbit of<br />distant Pluto.<br /><br />Although Pioneer 10's mission officially ended in 1997, scientists<br />continued to track the TRW Inc.-built spacecraft as part of a study of<br />communication technology for NASA's future Interstellar Probe mission.<br />Pioneer 10 hasn't relayed telemetry data since April 27.<br /><br />"It was a workhorse that far exceeded its warranty, and I guess you<br />could say we got our money's worth," said Larry Lasher, Pioneer 10<br />project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center.<br /><br />Pioneer 10 carries a gold plaque engraved with a message of goodwill<br />and a map showing the Earth's location in the solar system. The<br />spacecraft continues to coast toward the star Aldebaran in the<br />constellation Taurus. It will take 2 million years to reach it.<br /><br />The Pioneer home page is<br />
http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNhome.html<br /><br /><br />[ANS thanks Florida Today for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.02<br />ISS Active on Voice<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.02 From AMSAT HQ<br /><br />SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2003<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-061.02<br /><br />Stan/W4SV reported working the International Space Station this past<br />week:<br /><br />I worked Don Pettit this morning, Feb 27, at 1009 UTC. This was<br />only the 2nd time I've heard him on the air (last time was Jan 5th)<br />though I am aware that he has been on at least one or two other<br />times making random contacts. No, not as active as previous<br />crews... but that's the way it goes sometimes. Good luck!<br /><br />73 de Stan/W4SV<br /><br />[ANS thanks Stan, W4SV, for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.03<br /><br />Oscar Satellite Communications Achievement Award<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.03 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2003<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-061.03<br /><br /><br />As of today, all AMSAT awards should be sent to me, KK5DO, for issuance<br />(except K2ZRO Engineering Award should be start to issue it again on<br />AO-40). The Communicators Club and the W4AMI Award used to go to AMSAT<br />HQ. For easy of issuance, I will now be doing all of them.<br /><br />Several Awards were issued today.<br /><br />Congrats go out to Steven Michalski, Jr, KB9UPS, for earning his Oscar<br />Satellite Communications Achievement Award. He is recipient #367.<br /><br />Also, Congrats go out to Scott Fawcett, KF2ZQ, for earning his Oscar<br />Satellite Communications Achievement Award. He is recipient #368 and<br />his Oscar Sexagesimal Award #127 and the South Africa AMSAT Satellite<br />Communication Achievement Award #US73.<br /><br />To see this award and a list of other awards, visit<br />
http://www.amsatnet.com/awards.html<br /><br />73...bruce<br />Bruce Paige, KK5DO<br /><br />[ANS thanks JoAnne, WB9JEJ, for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.04<br />NASA's Newest Seawinds Instrument Breezes Into Operation<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.04 From AMSAT HQ<br /><br />SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2003<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-061.04<br /><br />The Seawinds scatterometer, one of NASA's newest Earth-observing<br />instruments launched In December 2002 aboard the Japanese Advanced<br />Observing Satellite "Midori 2," successfully transmitted its first<br />radar pictures to Earth.<br /><br />The released image, obtained from data collected on January 28 and 29,<br />depicts Earth's continents in green, polar glacial ice-covered regions<br />in blue-red and sea ice in gray.<br /><br />Color and intensity changes over ice and land are related to ice<br />melting, variations in land surface roughness and vegetation cover.<br />Ocean surface wind speeds, measured during a 12-hour period on January<br />28, are shown by colors.<br /><br />Blues correspond to low wind speeds and reds to wind speeds up to 15<br />meters per second (30 knots). Black arrows denote wind direction. White<br />gaps over the oceans represent unmeasured areas between SeaWinds<br />swaths (the instrument measures winds over about 90 percent of the<br />oceans each day).<br /><br />SeaWinds transmits high-frequency microwave pulses to Earth's land<br />masses, ice cover and ocean surface and measures the strength of the<br />radar pulses that bounce back to the instrument.<br /><br />It will complement and eventually replace an identical instrument<br />orbiting since June 1999 on NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikScat)<br />satellite. Its three- to five-year mission will augment a long-term<br />ocean surface wind data series that began in 1996 with launch of the<br />NASA Scatterometer on Japan's first Adeos spacecraft.<br /><br />Seawinds will provide the world's most accurate, highest resolution and<br />broadest geographic coverage of ocean wind speed and Direction, sea<br />ice extent and properties of Earth's land surfaces. It takes millions<br />of radar measurements covering about 93 percent of Earth's surface<br />every day, operating under all weather conditions, day and night. Over<br />the oceans, SeaWinds senses ripples caused by the winds, from which<br />scientists can compute wind speed and direction. These ocean surface<br />winds drive Earth's oceans and control the exchange of heat, moisture<br />and gases between the atmosphere and the sea.<br /><br />Climatologists, meteorologists and oceanographers will soon routinely<br />use data from SeaWinds on Midori 2 to understand and predict severe<br />weather patterns, climate change and global weather abnormalities like<br />El Nino.<br /><br />The data are expected to improve global and regional weather forecasts,<br />ship routing and marine hazard avoidance, measurements of sea ice extent<br />and the tracking of icebergs, among other uses.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Space Daily for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.05<br />ARISS Contact with Japanese School First Since Columbia Tragedy<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.05 From AMSAT HQ<br /><br />SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2003<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-061.05<br /><br />Pupils at an elementary school in Japan have been the first youngsters<br />to speak to the astronauts aboard the International Space Station since<br />the shuttle Columbia tragedy. The contact took place February 18<br />between 8N3HES at the Hirano Elementary School and astronaut Don<br />Pettit, KD5MDT, at the controls of NA1SS. The direct 2-meter contact<br />was arranged by the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station<br />(ARISS) program, which has been on hold since the shuttle catastrophe.<br /><br />No one asked any questions about the Columbia tragedy during the<br />approximately 10-minute contact that was marred by some communication<br />difficulty. An audience of approximately 180 people--essentially the<br />entire school plus several reporters--was on hand for the ARISS<br />contact. Pettit managed to answer eight of the nine questions put to<br />him by the fifth and sixth graders<br /><br />One student wanted to know what Pettit would bring with him if he had<br />to live in space for the rest of his life. "I would hope to bring my<br />whole family," Pettit responded. "I would bring my wife and my children<br />and we would live in space together."<br /><br />Because of the Columbia disaster, the mission of the Expedition 6 crew<br />members already has been extended until at least June. It had been<br />scheduled to end next month.<br /><br />Other students asked questions relating to everyday life aboard the<br />space station, including how the crew gets rid of its trash. Pettit<br />explained that after putting the trash into airtight bags, it's loaded<br />on an empty Progress cargo supply rocket and sent back into Earth's<br />atmosphere. "It's the ultimate means of recycling your garbage," he<br />said.<br /><br />Pettit told the youngsters that it's "nice and warm" aboard the space<br />station--about 22 degrees Centigrade--but that the crew could set the<br />temperature to whatever they desired.<br /><br />One student asked what the crew would do if someone became ill.<br />"Fortunately no one has become sick on our mission, so we haven't had<br />to worry about that," Pettit replied. He said that in the case of<br />sickness among the crew, the crew would contact flight surgeons on<br />Earth to get advice. He also explained that the crew has a medical kit<br />on board for those kinds of situation.<br /><br />The Hirano Elementary School is in Kobe, Japan. The school opened in<br />1876.<br /><br />An ARISS contact with students at Oregon State University is scheduled<br />for February 21.<br /><br />[ANS thanks ARRL for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.06<br />Two Astronauts on the ISS?<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.06 From AMSAT HQ<br /><br />SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2003<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-061.06<br /><br />Two American astronauts aboard the international space station wiggled<br />and tugged to get out of bulky spacesuits by themselves to test whether<br />a two-person crew can stay aboard while the shuttle fleet is grounded.<br /><br />Normally the space station has a three-person crew.<br /><br />Flight managers wanted to see if the astronauts could put on and take<br />off their spacesuits by themselves without the assistance of a third<br />crew member. A member of a two-man crew would have to know how to take<br />off the suit alone in case the crewmate became incapacitated.<br /><br />Commander Ken Bowersox and science officer Don Pettit completed the<br />test successfully in less than the allotted three hours on Monday. The<br />space station's third crew member, Russian flight engineer Nikolai<br />Budarin, videotaped the test and offered suggestions to his crewmates.<br /><br />NASA and its international partners must decide whether to keep three<br />people aboard the station or reduce its crew to two. A two-person crew<br />would put less demands on supplies at the space station. Crew members<br />now must rely on Russia's space vehicles to deliver water, food and<br />supplies instead of the much larger shuttles.<br /><br />The shuttles were grounded after Columbia disintegrated as it<br />re-entered the atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts.<br /><br />A decision on when the shuttles will fly again will not come until an<br />investigation into Columbia is completed.<br /><br />The space station crew members conducted the spacesuit test 246 miles<br />above Earth.<br /><br />Bowersox struggled for several minutes to emerge from the bulky<br />spacesuit. He submerged his head into the suit and tugged on his<br />sleeves. When that didn't work, he took the pants portion off. He then<br />leaned his body onto tethers stretched across the air lock and used the<br />resistance of the tethers to pull off the top half of the suit.<br /><br />Workers at NASA's Johnson Space Center applauded and Bowersox pumped<br />his fist in the air.<br /><br />"The Sox kind of reminded me of a withering insect crawling out from<br />its chrysalis," said Pettit, using Bowersox's nickname. "Except that<br />insect turns into a beautiful butterfly."<br /><br /><br />[ANS thanks CNN for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.07<br />Soyuz to Ferry ISS Crews<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.07 From AMSAT HQ<br /><br />SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2003<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-061.07<br /><br />NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe told a congressional panel February 27<br />that space agency officials had reached an agreement Wednesday with<br />International Space Station partners to keep the orbiting research<br />platform functioning for at least the next 18 months.<br /><br />The two astronauts and one cosmonaut currently on board the station<br />will return to Earth in late April or early May aboard the Soyuz<br />capsule docked with the station. They will be replaced by one astronaut<br />and one cosmonaut, who will fly to the station on a new Soyuz. They<br />are training at Star City in Russia.<br /><br />Having two people aboard will help extend supplies while the shuttle<br />fleet remains grounded, pending the outcome of the Columbia accident<br />investigation.<br /><br />Russia has agreed to accelerate the delivery of two Progress re-supply<br />vehicles so that there will be four Progress delivery ships this year<br />and five next year, O'Keefe said.<br /><br />The autonomous vehicles are used to deliver food, water and other<br />supplies but lack the large cargo capacity of a U.S. shuttle.<br /><br />Soyuz flights to the station will continue on a their regular six-month<br /><br />[ANS thanks Florida Today for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.08<br />First Mars Exploration Rover Arrives At Cape For May Launch<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.08 From AMSAT HQ<br /><br />SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2003<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-061.08<br /><br />The first of two Mars Exploration Rovers, MER-2 arrived at the Kennedy<br />Space Center today from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,<br />Calif. The cruise stage, aeroshell and lander for the Mars Exploration<br />Rover-1 mission also arrived today. This same flight hardware for the<br />MER-2 rover arrived January 27, however this rover is scheduled to<br />arrive at KSC around March 10.<br /><br />The Boeing Delta II vehicle for the first launch of the two launches<br />scheduled on May 25 is planned for erection on the pad at Space Launch<br />Complex 17 beginning April 18. The Delta for the second launch on June<br />30 will begin erection activities on May 1. Each spacecraft will<br />receive a MER-A or MER-B designation once they arrive at the pad.<br /><br />While at KSC, each of the two rovers, the aeroshells and the landers<br />will undergo a full mission simulation. All of these flight elements<br />will then be integrated together.<br /><br />After spin balance testing, each spacecraft will be mated to a solid<br />propellant upper stage booster that will propel the spacecraft out of<br />Earth orbit. Approximately ten days before launch they will be<br />transported to the launch pad for mating with their respective Boeing<br />Delta II rockets.<br /><br /><br />[ANS thanks Space Daily for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.09<br />Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule as of 2003-02-28 18:00 UTC<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.09 From AMSAT HQ<br /><br />SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2003<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-061.09<br /><br />[Editors Note... Due to the length of this weeks ANS bulletin, the<br />provisional questions from the educational institutions have been moved to a<br />seperate document, which will be posted with this bulletin. This has been<br />done to help those who read the main body of the news over the air.]<br /><br />The ARISS (a joint effort of AMSAT, the ARRL, NASA, the ARISS international<br />partners including Canada, Russia, the European Partners, and Japan)<br />operations<br />team wishes to announce the following very tentative schedule for ARISS<br />school<br />contacts. This schedule is very fluid and may change at the last minute.<br />Remember that amateur radio use on the ISS is considered secondary. Please<br />check the various AMSAT and ARISS webpages for the latest announcements.<br />Changes from the last announcement are noted with (***). Also, please<br />check MSNBC.com for possible live retransmissions<br />(
http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp). Listen for the ISS on the<br />downlink of 145.80 MHz.<br /><br /><br />For information about educational materials available from ISS partner<br />space Agencies, please refer to links on the ARISS Frequently Asked<br />Questions page.<br /><br />If you are interested in supporting an ARISS contact, then you must fill<br />in an application. The ARISS operations mentor team will not accept a<br />direct request to support an ARISS contact.<br /><br />You should also note that many schools think that they can request a<br />specific date and time. It does not work that way. Once an application<br />has been accepted, the ARISS mentors will work with the school to<br />determine a mutually agreeable date.<br /><br />Websites that may be of interest include:<br /><br />
http://www.arrl.org/sarex<br />
http://www.arrl.org/ariss<br />
http://www.amsat.org<br />
http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov<br />
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/index.html<br />
http://ehb2.gsfc.nasa.gov/edcats/educator_guide/<br /><br />Your completely filled out application should be returned to the<br />nearest coordinating ARISS region if your specific region is not<br />listed. E-mail is the preferred method of submitting an application.<br /><br />Here are the email addresses:<br />ARISS-Canada and all other countries not covered: ve2ka@rac.ca (Daniel<br />Lamoureux VE2KA)<br />ARISS-Europe: jh.hahn@gmx.net (J. Hahn, DL3LUM / PA1MUC)<br />ARISS-Japan and all Region 3 countries: iaru-r3@jarl.or.jp (Keigo Komuro<br />JA1KAB)<br />ARISS-Russia: n2ww@attbi.com (Valerie Agabekov N2WW/UA6HZ)<br />ARISS-USA: ARISS@arrl.org (The American Radio Relay League)<br /><br />ISS Expedition 6 crew:<br />Kenneth Bowersox KD5JBP<br />Nikolai Budarin RV3FB<br />Donald Pettit KD5MDT<br /><br /><br />Hochwald-Gymnasium, Wadern, Germany, Direct via DL0WR<br />2003-02-27 10:21 UTC<br />Contact was a success! (***)<br />Congratulations to Don Pettit and Hochwald-Gymnasium! (***)<br /><br />ISIS Malignani, Cervignano del Friuli, Italy<br />2003-03-06 08:33 UTC<br /><br />Krueger School of Applied Technology, San Antonio, Texas<br />Fri 2003-03-07 16:57 UTC (***)<br /><br />Saint Ursula's College, Toowoomba, Australia<br />TBD<br /><br />Field School Park Ridge, Illinois<br />TBD<br /><br />Cowichan Secondary School, Duncan, BC, Canada, Direct via VE7POH<br />TBD<br /><br />Lounsberry Hollow Middle School, New Jersey<br />TBD<br /><br />Higashi Kaneko Junior High School, Japan<br />TBD<br /><br />Osnovna Sola Selnica ob Dravi Slovenia (***)<br />TBD<br /><br /><br />The latest ARISS announcement and successful school list is now<br />available on the ARISS web site. Several ways to get there.<br /><br />Latest ARISS announcements and news<br />
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/arissnews.txt<br /><br />Successful school list<br />
http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/news/Successful_ARISS_schools.rtf<br /><br />or<br />
http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov<br /><br />click on English (sorry I don't know French)<br />you are now at
http://www.rac.ca/ariss/<br />click on News<br /><br /><br />Currently the ARISS operations team has a list of over 60<br />schools that we hope will be able to have a contact during 2003.<br />As the schedule becomes more solidified, we will be letting<br />everyone know. Current plans call for an average of one scheduled<br />School contact per week.<br /><br /><br />[ANS thanks Charlie, AJ9N, for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-061.10<br />Hochwald-Gymnasium / Pettit ARISS QSO<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 061.10 From AMSAT HQ<br /><br />SILVER SPRING, MD. March 2, 2003<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-061.10<br /><br />Congratulations to Don Pettit and Hochwald-Gymnasium for a successful ARISS<br />contact!<br /><br />The QSO took place on 27 February between Pettit and Hochwald-Gymnasium in<br />Wadern, Germany.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Charlie, AJ9N, for the above information.]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br />73,<br />This week's ANS Editor:<br />Scott Lindsey-Stevens, N3ASA<br />n3asa@amsat.org
