This TV news report from 2010 covers the contacts Thomas Medlin W5KUB had with astronaut Doug Wheelock KF5BOC while he was on the International Space Station.
Thomas Medlin W5KUB talked to Doug KF5BOC 29 times while he was commander of the ISS and Tom sent Doug some Memphis BBQ for his first meal after returning from 6 months in space.
Watch the TV news item followed by an interview with Doug who talks about the Memphis BBQ.
W5KUB website http://w5kub.com/
On Saturday February 4, 2012 at approximately 12.41 UTC, which is 13.41 CEWT, an educational ARISS contact is planned with the Polytechnic school in Walbrzych, Poland. Amateur radio station W6SRJ, located in California, will operate the contact.
The Polytechnic school in Walbrzych has been established in 1946.
These days it is well known as Secondary Complex School “Energetyk”, with a population of over 900 students. They study electricity, electro-mechanics, electronics, technical graphics, telecommunications, IT and ITC techniques, advertising. The school is equipped for students with disabilities, education is on a very high-level and graduate students can easily find employment. It is the best technical school in Walbrzych.
Apart from teaching, the school offers many other activities.
The Shooting section exists since sixty years and takes leading positions in “The Silver Muskets” contest. Since three years, students take part in the Robotic Group, acquiring knowledge and having a lot of fun, building robots from scratch, according to their own ideas and knowledge. They were several times among the winners in prestigious competitions on an International level. There is also the school band “Underland”. The band is well-known in Walbrzych for they perform many concerts, in the city and around. In school is also active in “Energol TV” and they produce a newspaper “Alcatraz 2”.
The amateur radio club SP6PBA is located in the school. Besides HF communications with HAM operators all over the World, the club also transmits HAM TV in the 1.2 GHz band.
The ARISS contact will be conducted in English. It will be broadcast on EchoLink AMSAT (node 101 377) and JK1ZRW (node 277 208) Conference servers, as well as on IRLP Discovery Reflector 9010.
Students will ask as many of the following questions as time allows.
1. Lukasz (18): What is the difference between an astronaut and a cosmonaut?
2. Kacper (16): How does it feel to be weightless?
3. Karol (20): How long does it take to get accustomed to gravity after returning to Earth from the ISS?
4. Mateusz (20): Are large structures on the Earth such as the Chinese wall or the artificial islands in Dubai visible from the ISS? What else?
5. Piotr C. (20): Is eating in weightlessness difficult?
6. Dawid (18): How do you spend your free time on the station?
7. Sebastian (16): Has the crew got any health problems related to being in space?
8. Piotr J. (16): What kind of everyday tasks and what kind of experiments do you perform on the ISS?
9. Lukasz (18): How did it happen that you became an astronaut? Did you dream about it as a child?
10. Kacper (16): Do you keep in touch with your family when you are in space?
11. Karol(20): Are you provided with media such as phone, Internet, radio or TV?
12. Mateusz (20): Is the rubbish thrown out into space or brought back to Earth?
13. Piotr C. (20): Which planets of our solar system apart from Earth can you see through the window in Cupola module?
14. Dawid (18): Is it hard to take care of personal hygiene in the absence of gravity?
15. Sebastian (16): How long does the trip from lift-off until docking at the ISS last?
16. Piotr J. (16): How long does an astronaut’s mission training last?
17. Darek (55): How did you celebrate the beginning of 2012 on the station and which time zone did you have to adjust to?
ARISS is an international educational outreach program partnering the participating space agencies, NASA, Russian Space Agency, ESA, CNES, 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 onboard 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.
73
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF
ARISS Chairman
RS-39 Telemetry Decoder Screen Shot - Nittin VU3TYG
Mike Rupprecht DK3WN has made available software to decode the telemetry beacon of RS-39 (435.315 and 435.215 MHz) .
In Google English the software description reads:
Very simple tool for decoding the CW telemetry and display of telemetry values of Chibis-M (RS-39).
The input of the received telemetry values are in the respective fields U.S., IBS, Uzun, iSun, ITXA, ITXB, TTXA, TTXB, TNAP, TAB, MSEP, MCON, SMA, SMB, and MRXA MRXB. The converted value is displayed immediately. All values are checked for plausibility, one differing from the standard value is displayed with red background. Normal telemetry values have corresponding hardware box with a green background.
With the Save button, the currently displayed telemetry values are saved in a file.
Download RS-39 Decoder Version 1.0 http://www.dk3wn.info/files/rs39.zip
DK3WN satellite software page in Google English http://tinyurl.com/DK3WN-Sat-Software
RS-39 Real Time Tracking Map http://chibis.cosmos.ru/cyclogr/prepare1/google/index.html
RS-39 (Chibis-M) http://www.uk.amsat.org/3910
RS-39 Chibis-M
RS-39 has CW beacons on 435.315 and 435.215 MHz that can be received directly by schools and colleges for educational outreach purposes. It deployed from Progress M-13M into a 500 km orbit on January 24 at approximately 23:18:30 UT.
On November 2, 2011 cargo ship “Progress M-13M”, which also delivered microsatellite “Chibis-M”, was docked with ISS. The main purpose of “Chibis-M” is the study of physical processes in the vicinity of the lightning, during which the Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes (TGFs) are generated. TGFs are likely produced by beams of very energetic electrons, which are accelerated in the intense electric fields generated by large thunderstorm systems.
The deployment of “Chibis-M” in a circular orbit of 500 km will take place during the final phase of “Progress M-13M” operation. According to the plan of the Russian Space Control Centre, undocking of “Progress M-13M” will occur at January 24, 01:59 msk and after two corrections it will be positioned at 500 km orbit. At January 25, 03:14 msk “Chibis-M” will separate. Beside scientific data “Chibis-M” will transmit service telemetry (the housekeeping parameters) in the beacon format on 435.315 or 435.215 MHz CW (Doppler shift +/- 10 kHz) and has the designation of RS-39. The format of data is typical for RS satellites and can be downloaded here.
The telemetry of RS-39 can be easily received directly by schools and colleges for educational outreach purposes. This telemetry will give details of the spacecraft’s health – battery voltages and temperatures of critical units. In combination with orbital data such information will be useful as the curriculum for student lessons.
The team of RS-39 will very much appreciate any reception reports of “Chibis-M”. Special attention is requested for the first orbits as these are outside of control stations for “Chibis-M”. Each report will be confirmed by special QSL card. The email address is amateur-rs39@chibis.cosmos.ru
The RS-39 Chibis-M website managed the by Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) can be seen in Russian at http://chibis.cosmos.ru/ or in Google English at http://tinyurl.com/RS-39-Chibis-M
As well as measuring electromagnetic parameters of “space weather” in the spectrum 0.1 – 40 kHz the satellite also carries a receiver for the analysis of radio frequency signals in a frequency band of 26-48 MHz. http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/researches/geophis/19.html
RS-39 Morse Code telemetry format http://tinyurl.com/RS-39-Morse-Code-Telemetry
RS-39 Telemetry Decoder http://www.uk.amsat.org/4029
RS-39 Real Time Tracking Map http://chibis.cosmos.ru/cyclogr/prepare1/google/index.html
For Keps click on two gear wheels in top left-hand corner then click on Satellites.
It may be worth checking the AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB) for the very latest news. The 48-hour archive of the AMSAT-BB is at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/amsat-bb/48hour/threads.html or you can join the bulletin board at http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/maillist.php
International Space Station
Doug Cook KD5PDN’s article about contacting the International Space Station with a few watts and a shoestring budget antenna is now available.
The article “QRP to the ISS” appeared in the February, 2012 issue of QST magazine and, with permission from the ARRL, can be downloaded from Clint Bradford K6LCS’s website.
Doug walks the reader through building a simple tape measure beam, and how to successfully work the ISS with it and a handheld radio.
Read the article at http://www.work-sat.com/Work-Sat/Misc_files/QRP-ISS.pdf
A video by author Doug Cook KD5PDN shows the tape rule antenna and how to set up a Yaesu VX-8R for ISS APRS packet data sending and receiving and other aspects to make a digital contact with the International Space Station. You can also learn how to interpret the audio prompts when packet data is being received.
Watch ISS APRS Contact with a Yaesu VX-8R WB5BSA
There is lots of other information on the Work Satellites website at http://www.work-sat.com/
Europe has named Thursday 9 February as the day it intends to launch its new Vega rocket for the very first time.
The 30m-tall vehicle has been developed to take payloads up to 1.5 tonnes into a polar orbit, and will fly from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.
The project has been led by Italian industry and is years behind on its original schedule.
But European Space Agency Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain, said he would not force the pace.
“Today, the target date is 9 February, but it’s a target,” he told BBC News.
“I shall never say this is the definitive launch date because it is a maiden flight, and with a maiden flight I shall take no risk. There will be no compromise on any question which could still be open on 9 February.”
The caution is well advised. Statistics show that some two-thirds of the rockets introduced in the past 20 years have had an unsuccessful first outing.
It is for this reason that the satellites carried on the “qualification” flight have been given a free ride.
Biannual operations
Vega is a four-stage rocket. Its first three segments burn a solid fuel; its fourth and final stage uses liquid propellants, and can be stopped and restarted several times to get a spacecraft into just the right orbit.
Esa expects an operational Vega to be launching about twice a year, carrying mostly small scientific and government satellites.
If the rocket should need to delay from 9 February to deal with technical issues, it will only be given a short window to resolve the problems before being asked to stand down for several weeks.
Vega’s big “brother” at Kourou, the Ariane 5 rocket, is booked to launch Europe’s third ATV cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS) on 9 March, and this mission will take precedence if there is a conflict.
The frequent comings and goings at the orbiting platform require a carefully co-ordinated traffic schedule, and this will not be disrupted for an unrelated, experimental rocket flight.
“I have to respect my commitments to my International Space Station partners,” Mr Dordain explained.
“It’s clear that if we are arriving in a situation where the launch of Vega starts to interfere with the date of the launch of ATV 3, I will choose to switch and go for ATV first and Vega next.”
Long-term planning
Vega is just the beginning of what is expected to be a busy year for Esa.
Metop-B will launch in May/JuneOther highlights include the launch of two major weather satellites, Meteosat 10 and Metop-B, and a trio of craft called Swarm that will measure the Earth’s magnetism in unprecedented detail.
Policy-wise, 2012 will also be a significant year because it will see the first Ministerial Council since 2008. This gathering of the member states, to take place in Italy in November, will set programmes and budgets for the next three to five years.
Key decisions will need to be made on the next evolution of Ariane, on funding for Esa’s participation in the ISS project, and on the development of a next-generation of polar orbiting weather satellites to succeed the Metop series.
Nations are likely to go to the meeting in a much weaker position economically than they did in 2008.
Nonetheless, Mr Dordain expressed satisfaction with Esa’s current budget profile.
The agency will have essentially a flat income this year of 4.02bn euros (£3.32bn), when all contributions, including from the EU, are taken into account).
“I am trying to implement the Esa programmes with just the payments that are necessary – less and less margin, more and more efficiency, and more and more reduction of internal costs,” Mr Dordain said. “This is a daily challenge, but on the other hand it makes life interesting.”
Germany and France continue to be the lead contributors to Esa, although it is noteworthy that the former’s agency contribution now exceeds that of the latter (750m euros from Germany versus 717m euros from France). Italy (350m euros) and the UK (260m euros/£215m) make up the rest of the “big four”.
AMSAT-UK 
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