Go to AMSAT News for the latest headlines about developments in amateur and student satellites and for updates about amateur radio on the ISS.
ANS 062 Weekly AMSAT Bulletin – March 2, 2013:
* Vanderbilt-AMSAT RadFxSat Cubesat Selected for NASA ELaNa Program
* AMSAT Shows New President’s Club Pin
* 5th European CubeSat Symposium, 3-5 June 2013, Brussels – Belgium
* American satellite starts transmitting after being abandoned in 1967
* STRaND-1 Information and Telemetry
* ARISS NEWS
* AMSAT-DC Workshop on Portable Satellite Ground Stations
* AMSAT Forum at ACADIANA ARA Hamfest – Free Admission Coupons for Youth
* Korean OSSI-1 Ham Radio CubeSat Frequency Coordinated
* ARRL Offers Two Sessions of their Teachers Institute
If we are to ever deflect an asteroid on a collision course with earth, it would be good if there had been at least some basci tests of some techniques such as simply hitting an asteroid with an object and seeing if it as the effecst expected. Ed Wright talks about a ESA/Johns Hopkins project to do just such a test: ESA, Johns Hopkins Plan First Asteroid Intercept Mission – CitizensInSpace.com
AIDA is a low-budget international effort that would send two small craft to intercept a double target. While one probe smashes into the smaller asteroid at around 6.25 km/s, the other records what happens.
One effect would be a change in the orbital ballet of the two objects. AIDA is not intended to show how we could deflect an asteroid that threatens Earth but it would be a first step.