• [ANS] ANS-303 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

    From Mark Johns, K0JM@21:1/5 to All on Sun Oct 30 09:27:11 2022
    XPost: rec.radio.info

    AMSAT NEWS SERVICE
    ANS-303

    The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and information service of AMSAT, 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

    You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service
    Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/

    In this edition:

    * MESAT-1 to Carry AMSAT Linear Transponder Module
    * FoxTelem Version 1.12 Released
    * AMSAT President’s Club Announces 2022 Members
    * GreenCube in Digipeater Mode
    * Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
    * ISS Partners Weigh Options for Using Commercial Space Stations
    * ARISS News
    * Upcoming Satellite Operations
    * Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events
    * Satellite Shorts From All Over


    ANS-303 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

    To: All RADIO AMATEURS
    From: Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation
    712 H Street NE, Suite 1653
    Washington, DC 20002

    DATE 2022 Oct 30


    MESAT-1 to Carry AMSAT Linear Transponder Module

    An AMSAT-constructed linear transponder module is included in the MESAT 3U satellite to be deployed as part of NASA's upcoming ELaNa 43 mission.

    MESAT-1 is a stack of three tech-stuffed 4-inch cubes assembled at the University of Maine and destined for space in 2022. The first satellite of
    its kind ever built in Maine, MESAT-1 carries three imaging experiments proposed by Maine schools and a 2-way radio for use by ground control and amateur radio enthusiasts.

    MESAT-1 was originally projected to launch from Vandenberg Space Force
    Base, California, in June 2022, but has been delayed. The satellite will be carried by a Firefly Aerospace "Alpha" rocket and released into a Sun-synchronous orbit about 555 kilometers (350 miles) above Earth. It will
    fly nearly over the poles traveling at about 7.8 kilometers per second
    (17,000 mph), making a full orbit in roughly 100 minutes. Any given
    location on Earth will experience 4 to 6 passes per day, with each pass
    lasting less than 15 minutes. MESAT-1 is expected to remain in space for
    well over a decade.

    A statewide competition in 2019 drew payload proposals from schools across Maine. Three projects were selected for the MESAT-1 mission: ALBEDO,
    IMAGER, and HAB.

    ALBEDO: Saco Middle School will study reflected light (albedo) and local temperature in urban and rural areas, with the idea that urban heat islands could be mitigated through architectural designs that reflect more light.

    IMAGER: Fryeburg Academy will photograph shallow coastal waters as part of
    an effort to distinguish turbidity and phytoplankton concentration from
    space. The academy is collaborating with the Wells National Estuarine
    Research Reserve.

    HAB: Falmouth High School will work on early detection of harmful algal
    blooms by measuring atmospheric temperature and water vapor levels around
    bloom areas. They will watch blooms develop, move, and disperse.

    The main radio aboard MESAT-1 is a linear transponder module (LTM-1) built
    by the nonprofit Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), a partner in
    the project. The ground station operator will command the satellite through LTM-1 and the module will transmit telemetry back to Earth. LTM-1 will also
    be made available to amateur radio operators for 2-way communication.

    UMaine applied to the International Amateur Radio Union to coordinate its planned frequency use for MESAT-1. The IARU approved this plan on 22
    November 2021:
    Telemetry beacon downlink: 435.800 MHz 1200 baud BPSK
    Transponder uplink: 145.910-145.940 MHz
    Transponder downlink: 435.810-435.840 MHz

    MESAT-1 carries a second radio, an EyeStar transmitter, originally intended
    to interface with the satellite's built-in GPS and the GlobalStar network
    to provide the ground team with accurate, hourly position information. This aspect of the mission was altered during MESAT-1 construction. The EyeStar
    unit will serve only a minimal function on MESAT-1.
    Background on Maine's First CubeSat

    MESAT-1 exists thanks to NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) an
    d the
    Maine Space Grant Consortium. Through CSLI, NASA has selected more than 200 CubeSat missions for the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program. More than 130 ELaNA satellites have been launched at NASA's expense since 2011.

    In 2018, Maine Space Grant kicked off a pilot Maine CubeSat Launch
    Initiative to involve students and teachers from across the state in
    designing CubeSat missions. Through a competitive process, the consortium selected three experiments to propose for NASA's 2019 ELaNa opportunity.

    The MESAT-1 proposal was accepted by NASA early in 2020. The satellite was paired with launch provider Firefly Aerospace for ELaNa mission 43.

    Dr. Ali Abedi, director of the WiSe-Net Lab at UMaine Orono, assigned three UMaine graduate students the task of producing the satellite. With the
    support of the Maine Space Grant Consortium, they completed MESAT-1 in time
    for a 2022 launch.

    [ANS thanks mainesat.org for the above information]

    ++++++++++
    ++++++++
    The 2022 AMSAT President's Club coins have arrived!
    To commemorate the 50th anniversary of its launch on
    October 15, 1972, this year's coin features
    an image of AMSAT-OSCAR 6.
    Join the AMSAT President's Club today and help
    Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
    https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/
    ++++++++++
    ++++++++

    FoxTelem Version 1.12 Released

    A new version of FoxTelem has been released ahead of the launch of MESAT-1.
    The new version will be required in order to decode MESAT-1 telemetry.
    MESAT-1 has an AMSAT Linear Transponder Module (LTM) and will transmit
    health data and images at 1200bps using BPSK. FoxTelem will decode and
    display the images from the University of Maine multi-spectral camera, as
    well as other data about the spacecraft.

    This version of FoxTelem will still support all previous spacecraft and the CubeSat Simulator.

    You can download it from these locations:
    https://www.g0kla.com/foxtelem
    http://amsat.us/FoxTelem/

    In addition to support for MESAT-1 this version also includes several bug
    fixes and enhancements. Questions or comments (other than "when is the
    launch", because I don't know) may be directed to chrisethompson [at]
    gmail.com or to g0kla [at] arrl.net. Issues or bugs can be logged on github
    at:
    https://github.com/ac2cz/FoxTelem/issues

    [ANS thanks Chris Thompson, G0KLA/AC2CZ, for the above information]

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    AMSAT President’s Club Announces 2022 Members

    The following members of the AMSAT 2022 President’s Club have been
    added as
    of October 31, 2022. We thank them for their generous support and helping
    to keep Amateur Radio in Space!

    The 2022 Year is rapidly coming to a close. If you have not yet joined, you
    can still earn your membership with distinctive five-color gold-finish
    coin, iron-on AMSAT logo patches and full-color certificate. Go to https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/ for more information.

    Titanium ($4,800+)
    Barry A. Baines WD4ASW
    Alan P. Biddle WA4SCA
    John D. Botti KC8OKB
    William G. Brown K9LF

    Platinum ($2,400+)
    Ronald G. Parsons W5RKN

    Gold ($1,200+)
    Douglas Besemer K0VPL
    Burns Fisher WB1FJ
    Joseph Lynch N6CL
    John R. Kludt K7SYS
    Glenn Miller AA5PK
    Douglas B. Tabor N6UA

    Silver($600+)
    John Boehme K4PRK
    Warren Fugate W3WE
    Mark Johns K0JM
    Bruce Paige KK5DO
    David A. Vine WA1EAW
    Chuck Weaver W3VAR

    Bronze($300+)
    Allen Kenney KK4AK
    Bruce Perens K6BP
    Donald Pettigrew K9ECT
    Scott Shaheen WB8OOJ
    Thomas Talley K0CFI
    Dave Taylor W8AAS
    Ricky N. Walker K4TD

    Core ($120+)
    Oscar Alonso N6PAZ
    Dwight Aussieker W9QJ
    Steve Bachhuber K9SJB
    Robert Brennan KC3CKV
    Burlington Amateur Radio Club
    George Carr WA5KBH
    Michael Caughey N2BT
    Jim Clary ND9M
    Richard Dittmer KB7SAT
    George Gallis AL7BX
    David Grebe WA4LM
    David Hartrum WA3YDZ
    Stephen Howard AB0XE
    Nels E. Knutzen W0PEC
    Gailen Marshall N5GDM
    Brendan McNeil ZL3BAM
    Juan Munoz TG9AJR
    Andrew Northam KE8FZT
    Art Payne VE3GNF
    Maxwell Rathbone W3POI
    Jay Schwartz WB8SBI
    Jason Schwarz N4JJS
    Alton Simpson WA5TJB
    Carl Starnes W4EAT
    Paul Stoetzer N8HM
    Christopher Wachs WA2KDL
    Stefan Wagener VE4SW
    Jeremy Wyatt KA2PFD

    [ANS thanks Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, AMSAT VP-Development, for the above information]

    ++++++++++
    +++++++
    Need new satellite antennas? Purchase Arrows, Alaskan Arrows,
    and M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store. When you purchase through
    AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards
    Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.
    https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/

    ++++++++++
    +++++++
    GreenCube in Digipeater Mode

    The S5Lab research team of the University "La Sapienza," Rome, Italy, the Italian Space Agency and AMSAT Italia are happy to inform the ham radio community that the GreenCube satellite will be switched in digipeater mode between 29-Oct-2022 00:01 UTC and 30-Oct-2022 23:59 UTC. Information on the setup required to access the satellite can be found on the team's web site https://www.s5lab.space/index.php/digipeater/.

    The S5lab team of Sapienza provides the software needed to communicate with
    the satellite along with a technical guide of the setup and the GUI
    features. The archive contains:

    The user manual
    The Graphical User Interface (GUI)
    The Terminal Node Controller (TNC) software
    The GNURadio script to receive and transmit

    The software kit can be downloaded from the same web page. The satellite digipeater implements a store-and-forward message service and works at
    435.310 Mhz (U/L and D/L).

    The 3U cubesat was launched on the Vega-C maiden flight on 13-Jul-2022 in a
    MEO orbit. The GreenCube project is being carried out through a
    collaboration agreement between the Italian Space Agency and Sapienza University of Rome, with the participation of ENEA and University Federico
    II of Naples. As for the radio frequency communications, a strong and
    effective cooperation with AMSAT Italia has been established, whereby AMSAT Italia endorsed the frequency coordination request.

    The team can be reached via their website at the URL https://www.s5lab.space/index.php/contact-us/.

    [ANS thanks Fabrizio Carrai, IU5GEZ, of AMSAT Italia for the above
    information]

    ++++++++++
    +++++++
    Want to fly the colors on your own grid expedition?
    Get your AMSAT car flag and other neat stuff
    from our Zazzle store!
    25% of the purchase price of each product goes
    towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space
    https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear

    ++++++++++
    +++++++
    Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution

    Two Line Elements or TLEs, often referred to as Keplerian elements or keps
    in the amateur community, are the inputs to the SGP4 standard mathematical model of spacecraft orbits used by most amateur tracking programs. Weekly updates are completely adequate for most amateur satellites. TLE bulletin
    files are updated Thursday evenings around 2300 UTC, or more frequently if
    new high interest satellites are launched. More information may be found at https://www.amsat.org/keplerian-elements-resources/

    No changes to the satellite list this week.

    [ANS thanks Ray Hoad, WA5QGD, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, for the above information]

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    ISS Partners Weigh Options for Using Commercial Space Stations

    Partner agencies on the International Space Station program say they are in discussions about how they will use, and pay for, commercial space stations that will replace it.

    Representatives of several countries currently involved in the ISS said
    during a panel at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

    ASCEND conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on Oct. 25 that they are looking at options for how to continue work they currently do on the ISS on the
    commercial space stations in low Earth orbit (LEO) NASA is helping develop
    to replace it at the end of the decade.

    “With the commercialization of LEO, it is really necessary to revis
    it our
    principles of doing cooperation,” said Peter Gräf, director of
    applications
    and science at the German space agency DLR. Germany is the biggest
    contributor to ESA’s share of the ISS and actively uses the station
    for
    fundamental and applied research.

    He said discussions among agencies and companies had started on how those arrangements would change with a commercial station. “We need to fi
    nd ways
    to work together, certainly in other ways than we did before,” he s
    aid.
    “There are a lot of options available and the main players are in h
    eavy
    discussions on that.”

    The ISS today relies extensively on barter arrangements among participating agencies, providing services to cover their share of operations of the
    station. Such arrangements are unlikely to work for commercial stations, however.

    “We need to find a new way of cooperating,” said Nicolas Ma
    ubert, space
    counselor at the French Embassy in the U.S. and representative of the
    French space agency CNES in the U.S., citing the challenges of extending current barter arrangements to commercial stations. “We need to put
    on the
    table every option.”

    “The bottom line for all is that there is a strong demand for capab
    ilities
    in low Earth orbit,” Gräf said. “It’s quite cl
    ear there will be a human
    outpost in LEO, no matter what the future will bring.”

    [ANS thanks SpaceNews.com for the above information]

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    ARISS NEWS

    Amateurs and others around the world may listen in on contacts between
    amateurs operating in schools and allowing students to interact with
    astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. The
    downlink frequency on which to listen is 145.800 MHz worldwide.

    POSTPONED: Five Bridges Junior High School, Stillwater Lake, NS, Canada, telebridge via VK4KHZ
    The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS
    The scheduled crewmember is Josh Cassada, KI5CRH
    Contact is no longer go for: Wed 2022-10-26 13:42:09 UTC 66 deg due to crew timeline changes. It has been postponed to the week of Nov. 14, exact date
    and time TBD.
    Watch for Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/c/ARISSlive and https://nslive.tv/five-bridges-ariss

    Ufa, Russia, direct via TBD
    The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS
    The scheduled crewmember is Anna Kikina
    Contact is go for Sun 2022-10-30 18:45 UTC

    Harel Educational Campus, Holon, Israel, telebridge via VK4ISS
    The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS
    The scheduled crewmember is Josh Cassada, KI5CRH
    Contact is go for: Fri 2022-11-04 09:43:51 UTC 50 deg

    The crossband repeater continues to be active. If any crewmember is so inclined, all they have to do is pick up the microphone, raise the volume
    up, and talk on the crossband repeater. So give a listen, you just never
    know.

    The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html

    The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at https://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html

    [ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors
    for the above information]

    ++++++++++
    +++++++
    AMSAT, along with our ARISS partners, is developing an Amateur
    Radio package, including two-way communication capability, to
    be carried on-board Gateway in lunar orbit.

    Support AMSAT's projects today at https://www.amsat.org/donate/

    ++++++++++
    +++++++
    Upcoming Satellite Operations

    Roving season is drawing to a close in many parts of North America, but a
    few brave souls are out there providing rare grids:

    W8LR: EN90 EM99 10/28-30. Passes are holiday style. Will post passes to
    Twitter and http://hams.at Will be on Linear and FM. EU I will be trying
    some RS-44 and AO-07 (in mode b) if I can. Lots of hills will make it hard
    for lower passes but my fingers are crossed. LOG W8LR/R

    [ANS thanks Paul Overn, KE0PBR, AMSAT rover page manager, for the above information]

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    Hamfests, Conventions, Maker Faires, and Other Events

    AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events.

    None presently scheduled.

    [ANS thanks Paul Overn, KE0PBR, AMSAT Events page manager, for the above information]

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    Satellite Shorts From All Over

    + CORRECTION: Last week's ANS 296 reported that AMSAT Engineering expressed appreciation to AMSAT-DL for capturing AO-109 telemetry. While AMSAT has
    great appreciation for AMSAT-DL for its ongoing partnership, the telemetry mentioned was provided by the PI9CAM team at the CAMRAS 25m diameter dish
    at Dwingeloo in the Netherlands. AMSAT Engineering expressed appreciation
    to the Dwingeloo team. (ANS regrets the error and thanks Nico Janssen,
    PA0DLO, for calling it to our attention.)

    + AmazonSmile has made a charitable donation to the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, in the amount of $342.72 as a result of qualifying purchases
    made by customers between April 1st - June 30th. Thanks to customers
    shopping at smile.amazon.com or using the Amazon app with AmazonSmile
    turned ON, everyday purchases make an impact. So far, AmazonSmile has
    donated:
    $9,030.13 to Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation
    Over $377 million to US charities
    Over $422 million to charities worldwide

    + Draft minutes of the 2022 AMSAT Board of Directors meeting are now
    available at https://www.amsat.org/minutes-of-the-board-of-directors/ (ANS thanks AMSAT for this information)

    + AMSAT's 2021 Financial Review and 2021 IRS Form 990 are now available at https://www.amsat.org/audit-and-other-financial-reports/ (ANS thanks AMSAT
    for this information)

    + The Proceedings of the 2022 AMSAT Space Symposium are now available to
    AMSAT members on the AMSAT Member Portal at https://launch.amsat.org/Proceedings (ANS thanks AMSAT for this information
    )

    + Videos of the talks given at the 2022 AMSAT-UK International Space
    Colloquium are now available on YouTube. Playlist is at
    https://bit.ly/3sAcYIx (ANS thanks Trevor Essex, M5AKA, for the above information)


    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/

    In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:

    * Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
    * 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 student rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary
    years in this status.
    * Memberships are available for annual and lifetime terms.

    Contact info [at] amsat.org for additional membership information.

    73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!

    This week's ANS Editor, Mark Johns, K0JM
    k0jm at amsat dot org

    -----------------------------------------------
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