Showing posts with label satellites. Show all posts

Cosmonautics Day Follow-up

Mark, K6HX, took a break from Hummingbird photography and captured some of the images streaming down from the International Space Station on Cosmonautics Day (April 11):  http://brainwagon.org/2015/04/11/sstv-from-the-iss/  
Very cool Mark (and I think the bird pictures are just as cool!)

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Happy Cosmonautics Day! Yuri Gagarin Images (SSTV) from Space This Weekend

http://m0dcm.co.uk/?tag=sstv

From the ARISS Web Site:

http://www.ariss.org/news.html

Latest NewsApril 6, 2015

ISS Slow Scan TV Expected Weekend of April 11

In celebration of Cosmonautics Day, Russian ARISS SSTV activity is planned for the second week of April.

Cosmonautics Day celebrates Yuri Gagarin’s famous flight on April 12, 1961 becoming the first human to reach space.

The SSTV event is planned for Saturday, April 11, beginning at 10:00 UTC and continuing until 21:00 UTC. All transmissions will use the high resolution SSTV mode PD180. Transmissions will be at 145.800 MHz. If similar to past events, 12 different photos will be sent through the weekend with 3 minute off periods between transmissions.

To receive the images in real time, all that’s required is a 2 meter radio receiver and a computer to convert the receiver’s audio to image form. The software to do this is available as freeware on the internet at sites such as http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmsstv.php.  Received images can be uploaded and viewed at the ARISS Image gallery found at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php .

Those capturing images are encouraged to upload them to http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/submit.php

Uploaded images may be viewed at http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/

Please be advised that situational demands on crew time could result in postponement or cancellation of any ARISS activity. Please pay attention to the possibility of any change in scheduling.


Soviet Union-1965-Stamp-0.12. Cosmonautics Day.jpg
 
 
 
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This Kid has THE KNACK TO THE MAX! And is in the International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards! (VIDEO)



Oh man, we've all been there in one form or another.  The struggle, the frustration, then, THE TRIUMPH!  I love when his mother drops the plate.  
Thanks to John KC0BMF

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Sputnik 40 Launched from MIR in 1997



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ISEE-3 Recovery Hiccup



Now that's a McDonald's that you would want to work in!  That's the headquarters for the ISEE-3 recovery effort. (Is it also the place where they recovered the long-lost moon photos from the 1960s?) 

This week the ISEE-3 effort hit a bump in the road.  Getting old gear to work properly is never easy.   Be patient fellows! 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/us/in-effort-to-shift-abandoned-nasa-craft-a-hiccup-or-burp.html?action=click&contentCollection=Science&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

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Contact Reestablished with ISEE-3 Satellite




http://spacecollege.org/isee3/we-are-now-in-command-of-the-isee-3-spacecraft.html


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A Worthy Cause: Help Save the ISEE-3 Spacecraft!


http://www.rockethub.com/projects/42228-isee-3-reboot-project-by-space-college-skycorp-and-spaceref

Here is an excerpt from the above website:


Our plan is simple: we intend to contact the ISEE-3 (International Sun-Earth Explorer) spacecraft, command it to fire its engine and enter an orbit near Earth, and then resume its original mission - a mission it began in 1978. ISEE-3 was rechristened as the International Comet Explorer (ICE). If we are successful it may also still be able to chase yet another comet.

Working in collaboration with NASA we have assembled a team of engineers, programmers, and scientists - and have a large radio telescope fully capable of contacting ISEE-3.  If we are successful we intend to facilitate the sharing and interpretation of all of the new data ISEE-3 sends back via crowd sourcing.

Time is short. And this project is not without significant risks.  We need your financial help. ISEE-3 must be contacted in the next month or so and it must complete its orbit change maneuvers no later than mid-June 2014. There is excitement ahead as well: part of the maneuvers will include a flyby of the Moon at an altitude of less than 50 km.

Our team members at Morehead State University, working with AMSAT-DL in Germany, have already detected the carrier signals from both of ISEE-3's transmitters.  When the time comes, we will be using the large dish at Morehead State University to contact the spacecraft and give it commands.

Thanks to Dave, WA8JNM, for the heads up on this. 
 

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German Radio Amateurs Receive Signals from ICE Spacecraft


The wizards at AMSAT-DL have done it again!  Their latest feat of outer space derring-do is the reception of the 5 watt (QRP!) signal from the lost (now found) ICE spacecraft.  Details here:
http://amsat-uk.org/2014/03/09/radio-amateurs-receive-nasa-isee-3ice-spacecraft/

Here is their facility:


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ISEE-3 Spacecraft Returns after Being Forgotten



Hack-A-Day has issued a challenge to hams and hackers:

http://hackaday.com/2014/02/14/call-for-hams-and-hackers-welcome-iceisee-3-home/#more-114769

If a BITX 20/40 would help, I stand ready to assist!  


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The NASA Juno Fly-by "Hams say HI to Juno" Video (very nice)



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First Pictures of the Far Side of the Moon (1959!)


On October 7, 1959, the Soviets sent an "automatic interplanetary station" to the moon.  This, in itself, was an amazing achievement.  Even more amazing is how they managed -- using 1950s technology -- to photograph the far side of the moon and get the images back to the earth. 

The Soviet document on the Harvard site (below) says that the transmitter put out "a few watts" and used semiconductors.  There appears, however, to have been at least one vacuum tube aboard (the cathode ray tube used to scan the chemically developed photo negatives).  Frequency modulated analog video similar to FAX) was used to send the data.

http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1962IAUS...14....7L/0000007.000.html

From Wikipedia:

Luna-3 was the first successful three-axis stabilized spacecraft. During most of the mission, the spacecraft was spin stabilized, but for photography of the Moon, the spacecraft oriented one axis toward the Sun and then a photocell was used to detect the Moon and orient the cameras towards it. Detection of the Moon signaled the camera cover to open and the photography sequence to start automatically. The images alternated between both cameras during the sequence. After photography was complete, the film was moved to an on-board processor where it was developed, fixed, and dried. Commands from the Earth were then given to move the film into a scanner where a spot produced by a cathode ray tube was projected through the film onto a photoelectric multiplier. The spot was scanned across the film and the photomultiplier converted the intensity of the light passing through the film into an electric signal which was transmitted to the Earth (via frequency-modulated analog video, similar to a facsimile). A frame could be scanned with a resolution of 1000 (horizontal) lines and the transmission could be done at a slow-scan television rate at large distances from the Earth and a faster rate at closer ranges.
The camera took 29 pictures over 40 minutes on 7 October 1959, from 03:30 UT to 04:10 UT at distances ranging from 63,500 km to 66,700 km above the surface, covering 70% of the lunar far side. Seventeen (some say twelve) of these frames were successfully transmitted back to the Earth, and six were published (frames numbered 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, and 35). They were mankind's first views of the far hemisphere of the Moon.

More info: http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/trackind/luna3/Luna3story.html#Film



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NASA needs Ham Help! Say HI to Juno (on its way to Jupiter) on 10 meter CW!


This is really interesting:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/hijuno/

Thanks to Richard, KK4JDO, for the heads-up.

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Dipoles in Space! Millions of them!


http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/project-west-ford/

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Happy World Cosmonautics Day!




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Sputnik Schematic Found!



We were searching for this last year.  Oleg, RV3GM, finally found the schematic for the transmitter in the Sputnik satellite. 

ftp://ftp.radio.ru/pub/2013/04/55.pdf


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