As NASA prepares to send the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024 under the Artemis program, Brad Pitt is playing an astronaut in his latest film, and now the actor will have the opportunity to discuss what it’s truly like to live and work in space with a NASA crew member living aboard the International Space Station.
NASA Breaking News
Powered by WPeMatico
The crew of Expedition 60 devoted their Friday to working on groundbreaking scientific research aboard the International Space Station, as well as inspiring the Artemis generation during a downlink hosted by the National STEM Cell Foundation.
Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan of NASA took the mantle of fielding selected questions from 39 middle school classrooms nationwide during the space-to-Earth call at 10:55 a.m. EDT. The downlink, hosted by the National STEM Cell Foundation at the Kentucky Science Center, allowed classes that are part of the National STEM Scholar Program to get a firsthand look at what it’s like to live and work in microgravity, with the crewmates providing anecdotes from their time in space.
Hague and Morgan, along with NASA astronaut Christina Koch and Luca Parmitano of (European Space Agency), further investigated the effects of spaceflight on rodent residents with Rodent Research-17, evaluating the changes caused by microgravity to their immunity, cells, bones and musculature. These findings will bolster discoveries for new therapies — both in space and back on Earth.
Koch also performed experiment maintenance, installing a sample cartridge into the Cryo Chiller within an Expedite the Processing of Experiments to Space Station (EXPRESS) locker. This unique chiller provides rapid freezing capability in support of biological sciences, as well as temperature-controlled transfer to and from the space station on visiting vehicles.
Hague and Koch captured cinematic recordings of Morgan working on the Microgravity Crystals experiment for ISS Experience, a virtual reality series will educate to Earth audiences on what Expedition crew members do each day in support of operations and research. The experiment will illustrate how microgravity can be helpful in learning about diseases on Earth through the crystallization of a membrane protein integral to tumor growth and cancer survival. While the crystallization of this protein has yielded unsatisfactory results in gravity, Microgravity Crystals leverages the absence of gravity for extensive protein crystallization work onboard, significantly increasing the likelihood of successful crystal growth. Forthcoming results may support the development of cancer treatments that target the protein more effectively, and with fewer side effects.
Commander Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos joined his American teammates in conducting routine eye ultrasounds. Since long-duration space missions have been shown to cause severe and lasting physical damage to some astronauts’ eyes, continued monitoring of eye health is necessary to mitigate any noticeable effects for the crew.
Catherine Williams
Powered by WPeMatico
BT Adastral Park, Martlesham – credit BT
Mark M5BOP reports the complete set of amateur radio technical talks from this year’s Martlesham Microwave Round Table is now available to watch on YouTube.
Videos of these MMRT 2019 talks are available:
• Practical GNUradio – Heather Lomond M0HMO
• From Death Rays to Dinner – William Eustace M0WJE
• Equipment for Es’hail-2 / QO-100 Narrowband – David Bowman G0MRF
• DATV on Es’hail-2 / QO100 – Noel Matthews G8GTZ
• Low-pass Harmonic Filter for 23cm – John Quarmby G3XDY
• UKuG SDR Voice Transceiver Project Discussion
Watch the videos on the Martlesham Microwave YouTube channel at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHV7cC7ZMehKjAM81QxUS9w/videos
Source UK Microwaves on Groups IO
https://groups.io/g/UKMicrowaves/message/51753
UK Microwave Group
https://www.microwavers.org/
https://twitter.com/UKGHZ
AMSAT-UK: https://amsat-uk.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmsatUK
Facebook: https://facebook.com/AmsatUK
YouTube: https://youtube.com/AmsatUK
m5aka
AMSAT-UK
Powered by WPeMatico
Dawson Duckworth KC3NNB, Lauren Hurley KD2RHC, Kaixuan Ji AC3EN and Dr. Alan Johnston KU2Y staffed the AMSAT / Villanova CubeSat Club table at the Robotstock/STEM event in August
Students at the Villanova University College of Engineering started a CubeSat Club in the fall of 2018 and have since got their amateur radio licenses.
The university website reports:
A CubeSat is a nanosatellite—a small, lightweight satellite that is cheaper to build than a conventional satellite. They can be launched from rockets, or occasionally from the International Space Station by astronauts. CubeSats send telemetry information—measurements communicated at remote points by automated processes—over radio signals received on earth by a ground station.
The CubeSat club’s 2018-2019 year was packed with a variety of workshops and projects, including:
• Setting up temporary ground stations called SatNOGS (Satellite Network Operators Group)
• Building Yagi-Uda antennas from tape measurers and scrap wood and using them to track low earth orbit satellites as they flew over Villanova
• Building an AMSAT CubeSat Simulator, a functional satellite model
• Assisting with the freshman CubeSat mini-design projects
• Earning amateur radio licenses and ham radio callsigns
• Assembling and selling electronic transceiver boards used in CubeSats as a fundraiser
• Attending the 2019 Hamvention conference and running the AMSAT education table
• Received and decoded a special message sent from the AO-73 FUNcube Satellite especially for Villanova
Read the full story at
https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/engineering/newsevents/newsarchives/2019/community/CubeSat-Club.html
The students emailed a request to the FUNcube Operations Team to get their special message transmitted from space by the AO-73 satellite. Further information on these ‘Fitter’ messages is available at https://funcube.org.uk/ground-segment/fitter-messages/
m5aka
AMSAT-UK
Powered by WPeMatico
Taurus-1 with solar sail deployed
Taurus-1 (Jinniuzuo-1) carrying an amateur radio FM to Codec-2 transponder was launched on a CZ-4B rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on Thursday, September 12 at 0326 GMT.
Taurus-1 is a CubeSat project developed by Aerospace System Engineering Research Institute of Shanghai for youth education and amateur radio.
The transponder is similar to that used on LilacSat-1 receiving FM with 67 Hz CTCSS on 145.820 and retransmitting it as Codec-2 9600 bps BPSK digital voice on 436.760 MHz. The telemetry downlink is on 435.840 MHz +/-10 kHz Doppler shift.
On Friday, September 13, Mark Jessop VK5QI tweeted:
“Good signals from #Taurus-1 on 435.840 MHz! Doesn’t look like the FM/Codec2 Transponder is enabled yet though (no response on 436.760 MHz when transmitting on 145.820 MHz)”
https://twitter.com/vk5qi/status/1172505034551988225
Taurus-1 beacon received by Mark Jessop VK5QI
Codec2 9600 bps BPSK Downlink information by Daniel Estévez EA4GPZ
https://destevez.net/2016/10/lilacsat-1-codec-2-downlink/
Adam Whitney K0FFY documented how to receive the similar Codec2 Digital Voice transponder originally flown on LilacSat-1 using the FUNcube Dongle Pro+ SDR
http://adamwhitney.net/working-lilacsat-1/
Keplerian Two Line Elements (TLEs) ‘Keps’ for new satellites launched in past 30 days
http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/tle-new.txt
m5aka
AMSAT-UK
Powered by WPeMatico
