Tag Archives: International Space Station

Mar 23 2012

O/OREOS Mission: "Cost effective" CubeSat science

 

Astrobiology magazine posts a piece on the success of NASA’s O/OREOS mission that points out that serious science can be accomplished by tiny spacecraft:

‘The full success of the O/OREOS mission demonstrates convincingly that cubesats can be cost-effective platforms for performing science research and conducting technology demonstrations,’ said Mary Voytek, senior scientist of NASA’s Astrobiology Program at NASA Headquarters, in a statement from NASA. ‘The capabilities of cubesats are growing steadily, making them good candidates to operate precursor experiments for missions on larger satellites, the International Space Station, lunar surface exposure facilities, and planetary exploration.’

O/OREOS monitored the effects of the space environment on microorganism growth and metabolism in a high-inclination, low-Earth orbit.

Wayne

Image credit: NASA Ames

Mar 16 2012

ARISS ham radio space contact planned with school in Ortona, Italy

Space station

Space station

An Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school contact has been planned Sunday 18 March 2012 at approximately 11.31 UTC with students at Istituto Tecnologico Statale Trasporti e Logistica “Leone Acciaiuoli”, Ortona, Italy.

The contact will be performed by the radio station IQ6LN and the downlink signal will be audible over Europe on 145.800 MHz FM.

The Ortona Maritime Institute “Leone Acciaiuoli” (I.T.N) is a technical high school preparing the students to a career as officer on merchant ships or to university studies in the field of engineering disciplines.
The subjects that characterize the I.T.N. programme are: Navigation, Astronomy, Celestial navigation, Satellite navigation, Telecommunications (including satellite telecommunications), Technical English, Nautical and Aeronautical Meteorology, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Physics. Many courses deal with matters related to space technologies. The student population is about 400.

The event will be broadcast in streaming video onhttp://www.livestream.com/AMSAT_Italia/

Students will ask as many of following questions as time allows.
1. Loris: We all believe you are special people working together to achieve one common great goal. Are you proud of the great moral and scientific value of your commitment?
2. Mauro: What is the relationship among you being forced to live together in a confined place for an extended period of time?
3. Pierluigi: What cultural requirements must an astronaut satisfy besides very hard physical and psychological training?
4. Andrea: Is it easier for astronauts to get used to being weightless or to get used to gravity again when they come back to Earth?
5. Antonio: What height is ISS orbiting at and why was this specific height chosen?

6. Nichol: How is the ISS flight path controlled?
7. Giada: When working outside the ISS how are you protected from the space environment and the risk of flying away?
8. Angela: How long does the voyage back down to the earth take? And how does it take place?
9. Iary: How do you feel when watching the earth from the spacecraft window?
10. Causarano: Do you think living in space might change your perception of the world and influence your future life on earth?

11. Agnese: People say human beings age slower in space than on earth. Is that true?
12. Tamara: How do days and nights alternate up there and how often do you see the sun rising?
13. Francesca: How do you receive news from the earth?
14. Federica: Do you ever happen to miss your ordinary life on earth while being up there?
15. Carmen: What does astronauts’ diet consist in and how is it usually prepared?

16. Giulia: How are water and oxygen generated on board?
17. Mario: What research are you doing and what benefits will result from it?
18. Matteo: We know you are growing plants on board. Why?
19. Alessia: How do you dispose of waste?
20. Francesco: Do you think people will travel to space in the next future?

ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the space agencies, NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA and CSA, with the AMSAT and IARU organizations from participating countries.

ARISS offers an opportunity for students to experience the excitement of Amateur Radio by talking directly with crewmembers on-board the International Space Station. Teachers, parents and communities see, first hand, how Amateur Radio and crewmembers on ISS can energize youngsters’ interest in science, technology, and learning.

Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS Chairman

Mar 9 2012

ISS Symposium 2012 “Research in space for the benefit of humankind”

Radio amateur Andy Thomas G0SFJ has been invited to the ESA ISS Symposium 2012 to be held in Berlin, May 2-4.

The Symposium aims to review and discuss the key accomplishments in research made to date, looking at case-studies in fundamental and applied research and the actual or potential spin-offs for the benefit of humankind, as well as to discuss the future path and priorities for research on ISS.

The Symposium will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Berlin, Germany, starting at 13h00 (after lunch) on Wednesday, May 2, and will run until around 13h00 on Friday, May 4, 2012. Attendance will be free of charge for all invited and registered guests.

ESA ISS Symposium http://www.isssymposium2012.com/

Mar 8 2012

Astronaut's Flashing Success

Blue Laser Flash seen from ISS

Light (top center) flashed from the Lozano Observatory, about 40 miles north of San Antonio, was easily visible from orbit. Click on the image to see it full-sized.

Radio amateur and ISS astronaut Don Pettit KD5MDT describes how he succeeded in receiving signals on a frequency of 650 THz.

Flashing the International Space Station with beams of light as it passes overhead had never been successfully done—until now.

It sounds deceptively easy. In an earlier post I wrote about the technical requirements. But like so many other tasks, it becomes much more involved in the execution than in the planning.

Early Sunday morning, at 01:27 our time, the San Antonio Astronomical Association, an amateur astronomy group, succeeded in flashing space station with a one-watt blue laser and a white spot light as we passed overhead. This took a number of engineering calculations. Projected beam diameters (assuming the propagation of a Gaussian wave for the laser) and intensity at the target had to be calculated. Tracking space station’s path as it streaked across the sky was another challenge. I used email to communicate with Robert Reeves, one of the association’s members. Considering that it takes a day, maybe more, for a simple exchange of messages (on space station we receive email drops two to three times a day), the whole event took weeks to plan.

I was ready with cameras for the early morning San Antonio pass and can report that it was a flashing success. Here’s one of the pictures to prove it.

Don Pettit KD5MDT

Mar 8 2012

Astronaut’s Flashing Success

Blue Laser Flash seen from ISS

Light (top center) flashed from the Lozano Observatory, about 40 miles north of San Antonio, was easily visible from orbit. Click on the image to see it full-sized.

Radio amateur and ISS astronaut Don Pettit KD5MDT describes how he succeeded in receiving signals on a frequency of 650 THz.

Flashing the International Space Station with beams of light as it passes overhead had never been successfully done—until now.

It sounds deceptively easy. In an earlier post I wrote about the technical requirements. But like so many other tasks, it becomes much more involved in the execution than in the planning.

Early Sunday morning, at 01:27 our time, the San Antonio Astronomical Association, an amateur astronomy group, succeeded in flashing space station with a one-watt blue laser and a white spot light as we passed overhead. This took a number of engineering calculations. Projected beam diameters (assuming the propagation of a Gaussian wave for the laser) and intensity at the target had to be calculated. Tracking space station’s path as it streaked across the sky was another challenge. I used email to communicate with Robert Reeves, one of the association’s members. Considering that it takes a day, maybe more, for a simple exchange of messages (on space station we receive email drops two to three times a day), the whole event took weeks to plan.

I was ready with cameras for the early morning San Antonio pass and can report that it was a flashing success. Here’s one of the pictures to prove it.

Don Pettit KD5MDT

Mar 5 2012

Radio Hams send photo via satellite

ARISSat-1 Deployment

ARISSat-1 Deployment

The Cincinnati press reports that two Anderson Township amateur radio operators recently sent and received a photo from a satellite that was manually deployed from the International Space Station (ISS).

Farrell Winder W8ZCF and his son Jeff Winder KB8VCO achieved this despite the fact that an antenna on the satellite had snapped off prior to launch.

Read the Cincinnati press article at http://communitypress.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/C2/20120301/NEWS/303010057/