NASA Image of the Day
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NASA Image of the Day
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The Expedition 55 crew members are getting their U.S. spacesuits and equipment ready for a spacewalk in two weeks. The Dragon cargo craft from SpaceX is nearly loaded with NASA science and gear ahead of its Saturday return to Earth.
NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel are assembling hardware today that will be installed on the International Space Station when they conduct a spacewalk on May 16. The duo were assisted throughout the day by fellow NASA astronaut Scott Tingle scrubbing U.S. spacesuit water cooling loops and testing water samples for conductivity.
The veteran spacewalkers were mating repaired components from an external television camera group (ETVCG) that will be attached to the starboard side of the Destiny laboratory module. Their primary spacewalking task however, will be the swap out of thermal control gear that circulates ammonia to keep station systems cool.
Final packing is taking place inside the Dragon space freighter today as Tingle loads critical time-sensitive research samples inside the Earth-bound resupply ship. Robotics controllers will detach Dragon from the Harmony module Friday before releasing it Saturday at 9:24 a.m. from the grips of the Canadarm2. NASA TV will begin its live broadcast of the departure at 9 a.m. but will not televise its 3 p.m. splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
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Mark Garcia
ISS
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Ada Lace, Take Me to Your Leader is a new book written for young people by Emily Calandrelli KD8PKR that features amateur radio and space communications.
Ada is an 8-year-old with a knack for science, mathematics, and solving mysteries with technology. Her latest project is to fix up a ham radio, something that she could use to contact people on this planet and beyond.
The book is available on Amazon at http://amzn.to/2DbKt9L
Emily Calandrelli KD8PKR
https://twitter.com/TheSpaceGal
https://twitter.com/ada_lace
What is Amateur Radio? http://www.essexham.co.uk/what-is-amateur-radio
Find a UK amateur radio training course near you https://thersgb.org/services/coursefinder/
Free online amateur radio Foundation course https://www.essexham.co.uk/train/foundation-online/
Get The Details…
m5aka
AMSAT-UK
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Glasgow-based Alba Orbital plan to launch a 3p PocketQube Unicorn-2a built by several radio amateurs including Constantin Constantinides MM6XOM, Sajimon Chacko 2M0DSY and Alejandro González Garrido EA7KDU. A 3rd quarter 2018 launch is planned on a Vector Launch Inc. rocket from Kodiak, Alaska into a 350 x 350 km 98 degree orbit. The mission will last about 45 days and Delfi-PQ is expected to be a fellow passenger on the launch.
The mission of Unicorn-2a is primarily a technological demonstration of an Optical payload with a 16m GSD (Ground Sample Distance).
When the satellite is in orbit it is planned to run challenges with the amateur radio community such as:
– 1st download of an image from the satellite
– 1st reception of text based/extended beacon
– 1st reception of the satellite in the southern hemisphere
An open source GUI for the satellite will be available to all from Alba Orbital’s web site. This GUI allows for monitoring the health status of the satellite once the beacon has been received.
Alba Orbital are collaborating with the University of Aachen and their amateur radio group DL0FHA to trial Unicorn-2a operations and act as a backup. This helps students learn about communicating with a real mission.
The team are proposing a UHF downlink using 9k6 bps GFSK and at 2.4 GHz using 200 kbps GMSK and LoRa at 38 kbps.
Watch the talk on the Unicorn-2a structure by Andrew Dunn given at PocketQube Workshop in Delft
Unicorn-2 http://www.albaorbital.com/unicorn2/
Unicorn-2 on IARU satellite frequency coordination site http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/
Vector to launch Unicorn-2a and Delfi-PQ PocketQube satellites on first orbital attempt
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vector-to-conduct-dedicated-launch-of-alba-orbital-pocketqube-satellites-on-first-orbital-attempt-300610673.html
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m5aka
AMSAT-UK
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Emily Calandrelli KD8PKR with her new Ada Lace book
Unicorn-2a in Space – image credit Alba Orbital
Unicorn-2a PocketQube structure
