Mar 2 2014

Free NASA Online Course — Teaching Tomorrow’s Engineers

NASA Educator Professional Development and the National Science Teachers Association have joined forces to create and offer this first-of-its-kind online course for middle school educators. Participants can earn a certificate acknowledging 15 hours of effort. Graduate credit is available for a fee.

Module 1: Introduction to the Engineering Design Process
Event Dates: March 26, March 31, April 7 and April 17, 2014

Module 2 (optional): Implementing the Engineering Design Process in Your Classroom
Event Dates: April 21 and April 28, 2014

For more information about the course and to register online, visit
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/online_courses/NEScourse.aspx

Questions about this series opportunity should be directed to John
Entwistle at john.d.entwistle@nasa.gov

Source: ANS

Mar 2 2014

Free Online Course — Space Systems Engineering 101

Space Systems Engineering 101, a new massive open online course from NASA and the Saylor Foundation, launches on March 3, 2014. The six-week general-audience course is free to the public and provides a unique opportunity to learn from and alongside NASA’s engineers. Students who participate can earn a free certificate.

The course will feature lectures from NASA scientists and engineers and Google Plus Hangouts with NASA personnel. Winners of an optional project competition will receive a chance to tour NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

For more information and to register for the course, visit
http://www.saylor.org/2014/02/blog-announcement-space-systems-engineering-course-starts-march-3rd/

Questions about this opportunity should be directed to
http://www.saylor.org/feedback/

Source: ANS

Mar 1 2014

Satellite TLE Lottery Begins

Deployment of Amateur Radio CubeSats from ISS 2014-02-28-0730

The last two days in February saw satellite deployments from the JAXA H-IIA F23 mission and the ISS which between them released 12 satellites carrying amateur radio payloads along with a number of commercial and research satellites.

JAXA H-IIA F23 Launch February 27, 2014 at 1837 UT Credit NASA/Bill Ingalls

After a launch the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) issue the Keplerian Two Line Element Set which can be used to determine the position and velocity of the associated satellite. CelesTrak make this information available and the file for launches in the past 30 days is available here.

After a new launch this file will list the ID’s of the objects that NORAD have detected. These objects can be parts of the rocket body as well as the satellites. The challenge in the days after launch is to work out which object ID’s correspond to which satellites.

In 2012 Mike Rupprecht DK3WN developed a simple solution to this perennial problem by using an SDR-IQ receiver and a bit of software.

In the case of Masat-1 he chose a high elevation pass (89 deg) where the Doppler shift should be significant and recorded the complete pass with his SDR-IQ without Doppler correction. With some software he simulated the entire pass with different TLE’s.

He then chose the TLE that best matched the doppler shift of the audio signal.

Read Mike’s full article with pictures on his website at http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=26038

Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLEs or ‘Keps’):
• New satellites launched in past 30 days http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt
• CubeSats http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/cubesat.txt
• Experimental satellites http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/x-comm.txt
• Engineering satellites http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/engineering.txt
• Amateur radio satellites http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/keps/current/nasa.all