AMSAT NEWS SERVICE<br /><br />ANS-060<br /><br />ANS is a free, weekly, news and information service of AMSAT North<br />America, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS reports on<br />the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who<br />share an active interest in designing, building, launching and<br />communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.<br /><br /><br />In this edition:<br />* AMSAT Strategic Plan Announced<br />* AMSAT at the Nanosat-3 Design Review<br />* AMSAT HF Nets<br />* This Week's News in Brief<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-060.01<br />AMSAT Strategic Plan Announced<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 060.01 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. February 29, 2004<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-060.01<br /><br />To All Members,<br />In the following "AMSAT" refers only to AMSAT-NA except where specifically<br />shown.<br /><br />Forward by Robin<br />February 21 and 22, 2004 may be considered as critical dates in the<br />continuing development of AMSAT. Most of the Senior Officers together with<br />most of the Board of Directors met to start developing the "New AMSAT<br />Strategic Plan". It is now some 5 years since the last plan was developed<br />and since that time your Board of Directors has undergone a radical change.<br />At the same time the world has also changed dramatically with 9-11, Enron,<br />Worldcom and a turn down in the economy of the USA. Your Board thought<br />that a new Strategic Plan should be developed taking these changes into<br />account, and the differences in thinking of the "New Board of Directors".<br /><br />The theme of the meeting was to decide what the our membership (you) wanted<br />from AMSAT and what AMSAT must do to remain an active organization and<br />survive the next 8 to 10 years. It was agreed that the strategic plan will<br />be under constant review thus continually pushing the 8 to 10 year time<br />period outwards. A short Board meeting was held (Minutes to follow later)<br />at which Dick Jansson brought the BOD up to date on his thinking on Eagle,<br />then we tabled a motion on rules for "Electronic Board Meetings", until all<br />had a chance to review the matter for 24 hours. The BOD meeting was<br />adjourned and we commenced the strategic Planning meeting. In addition to<br />the Board members Stan Wood VP Engineering, Martha Saragovitz Corporate<br />Secretary, Art Feller Treasurer, Bill Burden VP Strategic Planning, Jim<br />Jarvis Marketing Manager, Steve Diggs Assistant to the President, and<br />Lee McLamb BOD Alternate were present. Apologies were received from Gunther<br />Meisse who was sick. The session was held under the direction of and with<br />the assistance of Gerald Youngblood who has held many such sessions with<br />similar organizations and was recommended to the Board.<br /><br />After reviewing the Strengths/Weaknesses/ Opportunities and Threats (SWOT)<br />to AMSAT we were able to determine a Mission and Vision for AMSAT which<br />includes a long range plan, and to which all present were able to commit<br />themselves. This plan assumed launching ECHO later this year, and the<br />successful launch of P3E by AMSAT-DL within the next 2 or 3 Years. It takes<br />into account the possible launches of one or more Low Earth Orbit<br />satellites from one or more of New Zealand, Australia, and India together<br />with other LEO satellites at the same time as Eagle. The plan assumes that<br />although there will be AMSAT interest in AMSAT-DL's P5E (to orbit Mars)<br />there will be very few AMSAT members who will have suitable equipment to<br />work that satellite.<br /><br />AMSAT MISSION:<br />AMSAT is a non-profit volunteer organization which designs, builds and<br />operates experimental satellites and promotes space education. We work in<br />partnership with government, industry, educational institutions and fellow<br />amateur radio societies. We encourage technical and scientific, innovation<br />and promote the training and development of skilled satellite and ground<br />system designers and operators.<br /><br />AMSAT VISION:<br />Our Vision is to deploy High Earth Orbit satellite systems that offer daily<br />coverage by 2009 and continuous coverage by 2012. AMSAT will continue<br />active participation in human space missions and support a stream of LEO<br />satellites developed in cooperation with the educational community and other<br />amateur satellite groups.<br /><br />Commentary by Robin:<br />In both the mission and the vision we discussed using specific names (such<br />as ARISS) but decided it would be better to leave the statements generic.<br />Daily coverage by 2009 means two satellites in orbit such as P3E and Eagle<br />well enough spaced apart that there would be one available everyday.<br />Continuous coverage means there will always be a high earth satellite for<br />some form of operation in North America (probably elsewhere too, but orbits<br />have to be developed for this). These would include P3E, Eagle and another<br />as yet un-named satellite.<br /><br />Although all present gave their agreement to these plans, much detailed work<br />remains to be done over the next several months to determine implementation<br />methods, your BOD will be meeting bi-monthly by teleconference to work on<br />these issues. Our first Teleconference will be to "Define Roles and<br />Expectations for BOD and Officer positions". Meeting these goals will<br />require a great effort, particularly on behalf of the members of the Board<br />of Directors. Each BoD member will have to become an active AMSAT<br />representative and fund raiser, we will be looking for support from all of<br />the membership financially, technically and administratively.<br /><br />73,<br />Robin Haighton, VE3FRH<br />President, AMSAT<br /><br />[ANS thanks Robin, VE3FRH, for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-060.02<br />AMSAT at the Nanosat-3 Design Review<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 060.02 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. February 29, 2004<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-060.02<br /><br />NASA and the AFRL had a review/poster session with the University Nanosat 3<br />team of universities just a few weeks ago. This was held near the Dulles<br />Airport in the DC area. All 13 universities were in attendance. We also<br />had a significant contingent of AMSAT leadership there including Tom Clark,<br />W3IWI, Art Feller, W4ART, Perry Klein, W3PK, Mark Kanawati, N4TPY and Frank<br />Bauer, KA3HDO. They provided significant guidance to the university<br />students, the professors and to the NASA and AFRL members in attendance.<br />There was a lot of AMSAT hardware development knowledge in that room. The<br />AMSAT team members had some substantial one-on-one dialogue with the<br />university teams on frequency coordination, dos and don'ts of spacecraft<br />design, etc.<br /><br />This was our opportunity to discuss how their projects might fit into the<br />structure of amateur radio. Art and Tom had collected the relevant AMSAT &<br />IARU literature into one place. This 1 Mbyte data package included:<br /><br /> Blank IARU Satellite Coordination Request<br /> The FAQ list prepared over the past year<br /> The DRAFT IARU Satellite frequency charts [AF] had collected<br /> Jan King's LEO Link Budget Excel spreadsheet<br /> The 34-page IARU document and checklist<br /> A "Join AMSAT" application<br /> A list of AMSAT mentors.<br /> And the new paper "What is AMSAT?" Annual Report<br /><br />Art provided about half the universities with this material on CD, while Tom<br />provided the other half by "sneakernet" using a USB "chewing gum" memory<br />stick. This was material was also provided to update the closed USAF/NASA<br />University website. Overall whole event was a win-win for the universities,<br />for the government agencies that sponsored it and for AMSAT. Events like<br />this one hold great promise as a model for future collaborations with<br />universities building satellites.<br /><br />There will be another University Nanosat review planned for the small sat<br />conference in August. AMSAT has been invited to support this with<br />reviewers. Planning is underway for AMSAT experts to be there to provide<br />their guidance and sage knowledge to these young students.<br /><br />[ANS thanks Frank, KA3HDO and Tom, W3IWI, for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-060.03<br />AMSAT HF Nets<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 060.03 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. February 29, 2004<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-060.03<br /><br />The following HF Nets meet weekly. They generally feature AMSAT bulletins,<br />and answer many questions from newcomers and old-timers alike.<br /><br />AMSAT International Sun 1900 UTC 14.282 MHz<br />AMSAT-NA East Coast Tue 2100 Eastern 3.840 MHz<br />AMSAT-NA Mid-America Tue 2100 Central 3.840 MHz<br />AMSAT-NA West Coast Tue 2000 Pacific 3.840 MHz<br />AMSAT-India Sat-chat Sun 0730 IST 7.070 MHz<br /><br />Additional information about VHF and local nets is available from the AMSAT<br />website at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/activity.html<br /><br />[ANS thanks Paul, KB5MU, for the above information]<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-060.04<br />This Week's News in Brief<br /><br />AMSAT News Service Bulletin 060.04 From AMSAT HQ<br />SILVER SPRING, MD. February 29, 2004<br />To All RADIO AMATEURS<br />BID: $ANS-060.04<br /><br />** The next attempt to launch Europe's comet-chasing spacecraft Rosetta<br />will take place early next week, the launch operator Arianespace said Friday<br />after liftoff was postponed for the second time in 24 hours. The Ariane 5<br />rocket was being brought back into final assembly building at the European<br />Space Agency's launch pad here, where technicians would replace an<br />insulation tile that broke off from its main fuel tank, Arianespace Director<br />General Jean-Yves Le Gall told the press. The rocket will be brought back<br />on to the launch pad and a second launch attempt will take place "overnight<br />Monday or overnight Tuesday" depending on how the repair work and inspection<br />proceed, he said.. --SpaceDaily<br /><br />** Using radio telescopes on Earth and another optical scope in space, a<br />team of astrophysicists says it's detected a tiny galaxy that is the<br />farthest known object from Earth. California Institute of Technology<br />astronomer Richard Ellis says the galaxy is roughly 13 billion light-years<br />from Earth. --Newsline<br /><br />** Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kalery and US astronaut Michael Foale<br />early Friday interrupted the first spacewalk to involve the entire crew of<br />the International Space Station (ISS), due to a fault in Kalery's suit,<br />Russian space officials said. Foale and Kalery had managed to complete much<br />of the planned work when the temperature control in Kalery's suit went out<br />of order, forcing the cosmonaut to return to the station, said the head of<br />Russian mission control center's press service Valery Lyndin.. --SpaceDaily<br /><br />** Having marked its first anniversary on orbit, NASA's Solar Radiation<br />and Climate Experiment (Sorce) satellite has hit its stride. In concert with<br />other satellites, Sorce's observations of the sun's brightness are helping<br />researchers better understand climate change, climate prediction,<br />atmospheric ozone, the sunburn-causing ultraviolet-B radiation and space<br />weather. Having accurate knowledge of the sun's brightness variations on<br />all time scales, from flares to centuries, at all wavelengths heating the<br />Earth's atmosphere, land and oceans is essential to understand, model and<br />predict impacts of the sun on Earth. --SpaceDaily<br /><br />/EX<br /><br /><br />In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership in the<br />President's Club. Members of the President's Club, as sustaining donors to<br />AMSAT Project Funds, will be eligible to receive additional benefits.<br />Application forms are available from the AMSAT Office.<br /><br />AMSAT has developed an on-line volunteer survey, designed to<br />identify the interests and skills of those who may be available to directly<br />help in efforts to develop the amateur satellite program. The survey is<br />designed to be completed and returned on-line, and takes only a few minutes<br />to fill out. To request the survey, simply send an e-mail request<br />to:volunteer at AMSAT.org<br /><br />73,<br />This weeks ANS Editor,<br />Lee McLamb, KU4OS, ku4os at AMSAT.org