Volunteer
for Mars crater survey. NASA's
Clickworkers is an experimental program to find if public volunteers
can contribute significantly over the Internet to serious space
science projects. They look for research projects that "require
human perception and common sense, but may not require a lot of
scientific training."
The first project
involves classifying
craters on Mars. There are a lot of them and there is no automatic
pattern recognition program trusted to do the job. But for people,
"identifying craters on Mars is something almost anyone can
do, and classifying them by age is only a little harder."
Student
spacecraft to orbit and to Mars. Students can now build
a lowcost satellite within the 1-2 year timeframe of an undergraduate
project. Cubesats from One
Stop Satellite Solutions (OSSS) comes in kit form with the essential
components - communications and power systems - included. Scientific
instruments, e.g. cameras or particle detectors, can be added by
the students.
Based on technology
developed at Stanford
, the Cubesat nanosat is only a 10cm cube and weighs 1kg.
As described in
the article U.Arizona
Says Space Is A Cube - SpaceDaily - Dec.17.00 , one of the first
student CubeSats will be an undergraduate project at the University
of Arizona.
The article goes
further to describe how multiple CubeSats, working in a formation
flying scheme, could greatly extend their capabilities. A program
has been proposed to NASA in which a cluster of 52 CubeSats would
go to Mars.
For more about
student and amateur satellite projects see - Satellite
Building .
More
Starshine
next year. Covered with mirrors
polished by high school and grammer school students from around
the world, StarShine
1 was successfully
launched launched in June 1999 from the space shuttle. The bright
object was tracked by the students to measure its orbit
decay , providing
an exciting lesson in orbital mechanics and the dynamics of the
atmosphere-solar interaction.
In 2001, there
are two more StarShine satellites scheduled for launch. New
students are now involved with this very successful educational
project. The StarShine 2 deadline has passed but applications
for participation are available for StarShine 3.
AO-40
Update... The Amsat
amateur satellite AO-40, formerly called Phase 3D, has been out
of contact for several days. It is hoped that it has simply gone
into a hibernation state due to software problems and will automatically
re-boot soon. Efforts to contact it will continue for several weeks.
[Dec.27.00
Contact!
A0-40 has been found again: Contact
restored with new amateur radio satellite - Spaceflight Now - Dec.27.00
]
SETI@Home
Update... As of Dec.18,2000, over
500,000 years(!!) of SETI signal
processing have been achieved - Current
Total Statistics .
[Dec.22.00 - Wired
has an article about the status of Seti@Home - Seti
Is Anybody Out There - Wired - Dec.22.00 . The "back-end"
analysis is just starting. This involves looking at spots where
promising signals were detected more than once. See
the Map
of the current hotspots .]
News
brief...Rocket racing is being discussed as hobby for
the ultimate thrill seeker - Anything
New On Rocket Racing? - sci.space.policy - Deja.com archive
December 13, 2000
The
astournaut list grows. Seven
flights to the ISS have been reserved with a $7.5 million down payment
by the German space TV program Space
Commander . This brings to nine the number of space tourists,
or astournauts if I may coin a phrase (or how about astourists?),
headed for orbit.
MirCorp previously
reserved one place for Dennis Tito, who is paying around $20 million
for a flight, plus another place for the Destination
Mir winner. (Earth's
First Self-Financed Astronaut by Keith Cowing - Spaceref - Dec.11.00
)
Each year between
2002 and 2009, a winner of the Space Commander TV contest, the details
of which are still being developed, will travel aboard a Russian
Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS. He or she will stay in a new Russian
module being developed just for commercial purposes.
(Supposedly this
is the same module that Spacehab
calls Enterprise
but none of the press reports state how Spacehab fits into all this.)
The International
Space Station is becoming the destination of choice for space tourists
now that it looks almost certain that Russia will de-orbit Mir in
2001.
[--Error--]Brainpool
- Space Commander - News Conference streamed audio
December 1, 2000
2-Way
satellite broadband goes online. StarBand
Communications began offering direct-to-home internet service
in November. Download
speeds reach up to 500 kbps and upload speeds up to 150 kbps. The
system remains in an "always-on" mode and is offered with
a flat-rate monthly fee.
There are optional
packages available including a combination Dish satellite TV
and internet system.
Starband is backed
by Gilat , the Israeli
VSAT company,
Echostar Communications (which owns Dish), and Microsoft.
Starband is the
first to market but several other
companies are planning similar services in the coming years.
While ground based
broadband internet via cable TV or phonelines (i.e. DSL or Digital
Subscriber Line) are becoming increasingly available, it is estimated
that 30 million households in the US who live outside of urban/suburban
areas will not have these services availablefor many years, if ever.
The DirectPC
service, a spinoff of the DirecTV
satellite TV enterprise, has offered a hybrid (i.e. 1-way) system
for several years. High speed downloads (400Kbps) come through the
dish but the uploads use a conventional dialup phone line.
The DirectPC system,
however, has not gotten great reviews. For example, charges were
based on time used and the amount of bytes downloaded rather than
on a flat rate.
However, DirectPC
now offers [--Link Dead--]flat rate packages
and also a new upgraded version in collaboration with AOL, called
AOL Plus
, is being offered at a flat rate. A two way version of DirectPC
will be available in a year or so.
While the failure
of Iridium has given space based services a black-eye, direct-to-home
TV is doing very well (now serving over 14 million households) and
these new internet services have a good chance to succeed as well.
Volunteers
needed for Mars colony (on earth). The Mars
Society is calling for volunteers to work next summer at its
Flashline research station
in the Canadian arctic. The tasks range from helping with construction
of the site to assisting with scientific experiments.
Stays are selectable
from 1 to 9 weeks plus a week of travel time.
For information
see the FAQ.
Christmas
shop and support space exploration at same time. By going
to your favorite internet stores via links at the following space
sites, your purchases will help to support Mars exploration and
reusable launch vehicle development.
Affiliate agreements
bring a small commission on a sale to the site that brought you
to the store. Here the commissions are being used to support space
development efforts.
The Mars
Society has its Buy
It @ The Mars Society Mall page with a large list of internet
stores.
Signing up at
eSpaceTickets
provides you a chance to win a ride on a MIG 25 Foxbat and later,
when the vehicle is ready, a sub-orbital rocket ride. By going to
your internet shopping store via the Buyers
Club - Quality Selected Merchants MENU - Your Gateway to Outer Space
, the store will pay an affiliate commission to eSpaceTickets.
The commissions
go into a pot which will be opened whenever the total equals $250k.
This will be used to pay both for the prizes and to make contributions
to companies developing reusable launch vehicles. (See eSpaceTickets.com
Buyers Club -- Terms and Conditions for more details.)
Space
hams open for business. The crew on the International
Space Station has successfully
commissioned the Ham
radio station located in the Zarya
control module . Visit the Amateur
Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) for details
of how you or your school can talk to the ISS astronauts via amateur
radio.
[See also the
ISS web site's page on the ham station - International
Space Station Reference Ham Radio ]
Space
station crew 'hams' it up ahead of cargo ship visit - CNN - Nov.13.00
Amsat
Update... The Phase 3D amateur satellite launched on
Nov.15 continues moving slowly towards its final orbit. The transfer
orbit trip will take 270 days in total. After reaching the final
orbit, the satellite will open its solar panels and generate enough
power to become fully operational.
See the photos
taken by a camera on board the satellite of its adapter support
as it separates from the spacecraft.
The satellite
has been renamed AMSAT-OSCAR 40.
November 15, 2000
News
brief...Leonid showers will rain down this weekend. Find
the forecast for your area - The
Leonid Meteor Shower Coming This Weekend to Skies Near You - Space.com
- Nov.15.00 * LeonidsLive.com
-- Science news and live webcasts of the Leonid meteor shower
. * SpaceWeather.Com
* Space
Weather Forecast for Nov. 15-19 at Space.com [Nov.21.00 See
report on the Leonids at NASA's
Leonids Galore ]
November 7, 2000
The
most ambitious amateur satellite ever awaits launch.The
650kg Phase
3D satellite is expected to be launched later this month on
an Ariane 5. It is riding piggyback with a large commercial satellite
and 2 other secondary satellites (the total payload is over 6000kg!)
The satellite
is the result of an international
collaboration of Amsat members and universities led by Amsat-Germany.
The satellite took several years to build and was then postponed
several times due in particular to delays in the Ariane 5 program.
The Phase 3D,
one of the few amsats to go outside of low earth orbit, will be
launched into a wide eliptical orbit (4000 and 47,000 km ) at 64°
inclined against the equator that will provide long periods of visibility
to most of the earth. The
amsat holds sophisticated high power digital transceivers working
in the amateur bands.
It also carries
a scientific instrument that will allow students to study the near
earth radiation environment. Two cameras will provide high resolution
images of the earth. An infrared LASER will also be available for
communication with the ground.
Amsat
News * Review
of the Phase 3D project at Amsat-Germany *[--Error--]AMSAT
Phase3-D Spacecraft Integration Laboratory Featuring the P3D Satellite
[Nov.15: Ariane
5 successfully launched and Phase 3D released. [--Link
Dead--]Ariane-5 Rocket Launches Four Satellites - Yahoo
. No news yet on whether contact made with the amsat. -Amsat
Bulletin- Nov.15 - Nov.16 - first
data received from Phase 3D ]
November 6, 2000
CATS
competitors fall short.The race to be the first amateur
rocket team to send a 2kg payload to 200km (124miles) has failed
to produce a winner. The CATS
(Cheap Access to Space) competition sponsored by the Space
Frontier organization set a deadline of November 8 to win the
$250 thousand dollar prize.
Several teams
had been expected to make attempts at the prize this autumn but
most dropped out due to either technical problems or failure to
get licensing from the FAA. (Lost
in Space Before the Race - Wired - Oct.7.00 )
HARC
(High Altitude Research Corporation), however, did manage, at least,
to attempt a launch with its "Rockoon" technique on October
30. A balloon, set aloft from a ship in the Gulf of Mexico, carried
a rocket to 75,000ft where it was to be launched by radio signal.
Unfortunately, there was a misfire and the rocket plummeted to the
sea. Cheap
Launch Ends in the Drink - Wired - Oct.30.00
There have been
many requests for the competition sponsors to extend their deadline
but as of yet it still stands.
October
Sky: Amateur Rocket Prize - Space.com - Oct.7.00
HobbySpace
Rocketry
A
Soyuz capsule under your Christmas Tree? The Russian
Soyuz TM-26 Descent Capsule was launched to Mir in August of 1997
with two cosmonauts and returned in Feb. 19, 1998, logging a total
of 198 days in space. The
Space Store** is now selling TM-26 for a modest $2.2 Million
US Dollars. If not for yourself, surely you would like to give it
to your local science museum.
SpaceHab
, now the owner of The Space Store through its Space Media subsidiary,
is collaborating with and RSC Energia (RSCE) in various projects,
including the Enterprise commercial module for the International
Space Station. Energia built the Soyuz capsules, as well as most
Soviet and Russian spacecraft. Spacehab is helping them to preserve
their many surplus used craft that would otherwise be
HobbySpace
Collecting
HobbySpace
Shopping
[**
HobbySpace has a advertising affiliate agreement with The
Space Store .]
News
briefs... Starband
(whose backers include Israeli VSAT maker Gilat, EchoStar, Microsoft)
has become the first company to offer 2-way broadband internet service
by satellite to the public - Dishing
Up a New Link to the Internet - Washington Post- Nov.6.00 ,
High
Speed Net Launched in Space - Wired - Nov.6.00 ...
Forbes looks at
high powered rocketry in Let's
Punch A Hole In the Sky - Forbes.com - Nov.00 ...
Microgravity research
on John Glenn's shuttle flight points way to improved antibiotic
production - [--Link Dead--]Antibiotics Race
in Space - HealthScout - Nov.6.00 .
October 30, 2000
Build
your own Aurora Alarm. Mark
Haun's website describes his automatic Northern Lights detector
that he built for a student project while at Walla
Walla College , College Place, Washington. The system has "successfully
detected about a dozen displays of the northern lights visible in
the Pacific Northwest during the past three years."
The device is
based on one described by Jesse Knight in Sky
and Telescope magazine in the article "Monitoring the Aurora
Electronically, June 1982
A sensitive light detector
is combined with a narrowband optical filter to detect light that
is characteristic of the Aurora. Microprocessor controls provide
for software selection of alarm threshold conditions and algorithms.
Details of how to build the
detector is given in his report: The
Aurora Alarm: An Automated Detection System for the Northern Lights
Real
time data from two detectors, one at Walla Walla and the other
in Illinois (he would like to connect a wide spread array of detectors)
are currently available.
{Checkout also the LivingSpace
page for lots of real-time Auroral imagery from space.)
A
chance to send a drawing into space. The European
Space Agency is sponsoring a competition
for kids between 8 and 12 from member states for the opportunity
to send a winning drawing into space.
The drawing should be of a
flag to represent the Earth and it will be carried into space inside
the Envisat, the new advanced Earth observation satellite, which
is currently scheduled for launch in mid-2001.
According to the press
release , the "overall winner will fly to Kourou, in French
Guiana, to see the launch of Envisat, the new advanced Earth observation
satellite. The Ariane 5 launcher that will carry Envisat into space
will bear the Envisat logo and the winning picture of the Earth
flag. Prizes also include 16 sets of computers and printers: one
for the winner from each of the 15 ESA Member States and from Canada,
a contributor to the Envisat programme. "
The deadline is 31 March 2001.
News
brief... checkout The
Red Stuff at a film festival near you...
October 1, 2000
James
Cameron, director of 'Titanic', may go to Mir. He has
passed medical tests at a clinic in Moscow that clear him for a
stay on Mir for an extended period. 'Titanic'
director Cameron plans flight to Mir - Space Online - Oct.1.00
. [Oct.4 - [--Link Dead--]Director wants to
Shoot into Outer Space - NYPost.com Oct.2.00 ]
[Oct.4
- Cameron denies plans for going to Mir. However, he did
go through some of the Cosmonaut medical tests and carried out some
of the training activities such as experiencing weightlessness on
an aircraft flying parabolic trjectories. He is involved in several
space related media projects and these activities were to help him
get a better sense of what spaceflight is really like. Director
James Cameron gets weightless for Mars - Boston.com - Oct.4.00
]
[Cameron is a
strong supporter of space exploration. He has been involved with
Mars Society
activities and is preparing a mini-series
based on the Mars books of Kim
Stanley Robinson .]
This news follows
the recent announcement that millionaire Dennis Tito will go to
Mir next year and that the [--Link Dead--]Destination
Mir TV program (see below) will allow the winning contestant
to spend a week on the space ship
Meanwhile, NASA
Watch (Sep.29.00) reports that the media company Dreamtime
is negotiating with Russian officials and NASA to allow them to
send private individuals, e.g. paying tourists or contestant winners,
to the International Space Station. They would ride aboard a Russian
Soyuz module rather than on a Shuttle and possibly reside in a commercial
module developed by Spacehab
and Energia.
[--Error--]Space
ventures vie for media dollars - MSNBC - Sep.28.00
See the HobbySpace
Space Tourism section for more about the growing interest
in this topic.
GlobeXplorer
offers hi-res satellite images to the public.
With a 12 terabyte database of both satellite and aerial images,
the company provides free public access to images spanning nearly
the entire earth.
Consumers have
access to lower quality black & white images while business
users are charged for images of higher quality, color, and with
enhanced processing.
For many large
metropolitan areas, users can employ an [--Link
Dead--]interactive map to zero in on selected neighborhoods
and even streets and houses. Resolutions can reach levels measured
in centimeters (for aerial images).
Public accessible
[--Link Dead--]images of a given geographic
area can vary in age and resolution. Whereas subscription users
can have the most recent exposures and the best resolutions.
For other public
image databases, see the HobbySpace
Eyes in the Sky section.
Europe
opens a student satellite initiative. The SSETI
- Student Space Exploration & Technology Initiative - is organized
by the European Space Agency as an educational project to encourage
student interest in space and science.
The aim is to
"create a network of students, educational institutions and
organisations (on the Internet) to facilitate the distributed design,
construction and launch of (micro)-satellites and potentially more
complex projects such as a moon-lander."
See the public
interest site or the [--Link Dead--]technical
site for additional info.
See also HobbySpace
Satellite Building .
High
Definition TV prepared for launch broadcasts. The Dreamtime
company will initiate its HDTV service with a broadcast of the Soyuz
launch of the first permanent Space Station crew (Expedition One)
from Russia currently scheduled for Oct.30. HDTV cameras will be
placed on the ISS itself in late 2001.
Cutting-edge
TV technology arrives at NASA; First high-definition equipment from
Dreamtime readied for missions - ENN - Sep.27.00
HobbySpace
- SpaceCasts
Ham
radio equipment delivered to the Space Station. Following
the Mir and Shuttle successful experiences with amateur radio communications,
the ISS will open a Ham station of its own.
Cosmonauts and
astronauts on long duration stays aboard Mir reported that conversations
with amateur radio buffs were great morale boosters. The Hams on
the ground, in turn, were thrilled to make contact with space travelers.
The Shuttle SAREX
(Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment) program used an onboard ham system
not only to talk to individual amateur radio enthusiasts, but also
to carry out pre-arranged contacts with particular schools that
allowed students to converse with the astronauts during a pass over
the US.
The ARISS
- Amateur Radio on the International Space Station - program
will continue such activities aboard the new orbiting base.
The recent shuttle
mission delivered the radio equipment that will be installed later
by the permanent crew. See images of the equipment and the area
where it will be installed at the ARISS
STS-106 photo gallery .
For more info, see the HobbySpace
Radio section and the article International
Space Station: What a ham - ENN.com- 9/19/2000
News
briefs...SpaceDaily buys rights to space.tv domain name
(SpaceDaily.Com
Buys Space.TV - SpaceDaily - Sep.28.00 ). The site www.space.tv
will soon be webcasting space launches and othe space related video...
August 21, 2000
Survive
Russian Space Camp and Go To Space. The Survivor
TV program has signed a $20 million contract with MirCorp
for a group of contestants to go through Cosmonaut training. The
candidate that comes out on top will then go on a week long trip
to the Mir space station.
Reality-TV
aims high with 'Destination Mir' - Space Online - Aug.12.00
* Producer
Mark Burnett to Develop TV Show: Destination Mir - Space.com - Aug.10.00
* Survivor
Producer Planning Space-Themed Show SpaceViews - Aug.9.00 *
Destination
Mir The space station is moving over to light entertainment -New
Scientist - Aug.19.00
[NBC
to Air Mir TV Show - SpaceViews - Sep.12.00 * CNN.com
- Space - NBC strikes deal for 'Survivor' show in space - September
12, 2000 - NBC
Plans Website to Sign Up Contestants For Mir - Space.com - Sep.25.00
]
[--Link
Dead--]Register for Destination Mir contestant selection
August
5, 2000
Watch
the Space Station passing by.
The ISS
has become one of the brightest objects in the sky since the
recent addition of the Zvezda
module . When it's going over at the optimum time of darkness
on the ground and sunlight illumination of the station, it is easily
visible to the naked eye. However, the station moves quickly across
the sky so you must know when and where to look. There are now several
web sites that will tell you when the ISS will be visible at your
location. See the Mir/ISS
observing section of the Satellite
Watching section for a list of tracking info sites.
July
6, 2000
Note:
My wife and I are moving to Maryland from Stockholm tomorrow. So
HobbySpace News will be updated intermittently at best for the next
month or so until we get settled and I get back on-line. Please
continue to check back occasionally and let
me know if you have suggestions and/or criticisms about HobbySpace.
- Clark
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