NASA Earth scientist Melissa Dawson has created a stunning time-lapse video of the Northern Lights. She came up with the idea in August after seeing pictures that were taken three seconds apart from the ISS as it moved along the eastern coast of North and South America.
Watch Northern Lights from Space
Watch Interview with NASA Earth Scientist Melissa Dawson
BLT-28 Katy to Nanjing
A group of amateur radio operators aims to establish a world record for distance by flying an unmanned, helium-filled balloon from Katy, Texas, across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean then on to Nanjing, China.
During the trans-Atlantic crossing, when out of range of shore based stations, the balloon’s APRS beacon will operate on the International Space Station (ISS) packet digipeater frequency of 145.825 MHz.
The South Texas Balloon Launch Team will release the balloon at 3 pm CST (2100 UT) Saturday, February 11.
The balloon payload package weighs only about 150 grams and contains a high altitude GPS tracking system and a 144 MHz FM APRS amateur radio transmitter. To conserve weight and battery life, no camera equipment will be on board. The maximum altitude is expected to be above 30 km, with horizontal speeds between 160 and 240 km per hour. The balloon size will increase from about 1.5 metres to about 11.8 metres at maximum elevation. Recovery of the payload package is not expected.
Individuals may follow the balloon’s progress on the Internet by logging onto APRS tracking site, filling in the “Track callsign:” field with “kt5tk-11” and changing the “Show last:” field to 24 hours.
The APRS telemetry transmitter is frequency agile to cope with different APRS standards across the globe. The frequencies used will be:
USA = 144.390 MHz FM
mid-Atlantic = 145.825 MHz (International Space Station packet digipeater frequency)
Europe = 144.800 MHz FM
APRS tracking site http://aprs.fi/
Read the Katy Times story at
http://katytimes.com/news/article_b2683a60-527e-11e1-bca4-001871e3ce6c.html
BLT-28 The Flight of the Orient Express http://www.w5acm.net/b28.html
South Texas Balloon Launch Team http://www.w5acm.net/
QRP APRS to the ISS http://www.uk.amsat.org/3838
Qtmm AFSK1200 soundcard modem software for decoding packet radio, APRS and telemetry from amateur radio satellites http://www.uk.amsat.org/4313
Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) http://www.aprs.org/
Link to UZ7HO Soundmodem 1200 bps packet and other APRS software http://wa8lmf.net/miscinfo/
Astronaut Janice Voss KC5BTK - SK
NASA astronaut Janice Voss, KC5BTK, of Houston, Texas, passed away on February 7 from cancer. She was 55. One of only six women who have flown in space five times, Voss’ career was highlighted by her work and dedication to scientific payloads and exploration. Voss participated in making ham radio contacts from space via the Space Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX), the precursor to the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program.
“As the payload commander of two space shuttle missions, Janice was responsible for paving the way for experiments that we now perform on a daily basis on the International Space Station,” said Peggy Whitson, Chief of the Astronaut Office. “By improving the way scientists are able to analyze their data and establishing the experimental methods and hardware necessary to perform these unique experiments, Janice and her crew ensured that our space station would be the site of discoveries that we haven’t even imagined. During the last few years, Janice continued to lead our office’s efforts to provide the best possible procedures to crews operating experiments on the station today. Even more than Janice’s professional contributions, we will miss her positive outlook on the world and her determination to make all things better.”
Voss began her career with NASA in 1973 while a student at Purdue University. She returned to NASA in 1977 to work as an instructor, teaching entry guidance and navigation to space shuttle crews. After completing her PhD in 1987, she worked within the aerospace industry until she was selected as an astronaut in 1990.
Voss’ first spaceflight mission was STS-57 in 1993, the first flight of the SPACEHAB module. She next flew on STS-63 in 1995, a mission to the Mir space station and third flight of SPACEHAB. She also flew as a payload commander on STS-83 in 1997 with the Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL), but the mission was cut short due to problems with one of the orbiter’s three fuel power generation units. Voss, the crew and MSL flew again as the STS-94 MSL-1 Spacelab mission, which focused on materials and combustion science research in microgravity.
Her last mission was STS-99 in 2000, a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which mapped more than 47 million square miles of the Earth’s land surface. In total, Voss spent more than 49 days in space, traveling 18.8 million miles in 779 Earth orbits.
From 2004-2007, Voss served as the science director for the Kepler spacecraft at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Designed to search for Earth-size planets orbiting distant stars, Kepler was launched in March 2009; to date, it has confirmed 61 exoplanets and identified more than 2000 planetary candidates. Voss most recently served as the payloads lead of the Astronaut Office’s Station Branch.
Thanks to NASA , AMSAT and ARRL for the information.
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
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