Lecture 10 from here - http://www.batc.tv/channel.php ( http://www.batc.tv/vod/AMSAT-UK_L10.flv direct link ) actually has the maths behind Ham Radio DIRECT from Mars to Earth if Amsat-DE can put together the cash to get a satellite up there. Just a 60cm dish would get 400bps

Anyone on UMSF into Ham Radio?

I'm thinking of getting in to it, but only as a means to an ends (setting up a groundstation for Balloon flights, and Cubesats)

I'm booked into the Amsat UK conference at the end of July in Guildford. I know a few of the CUSpaceflight badgerworks guys are going to be there.

My current plan is to grab a fairly cheap UHF/VHF handheld to get my license with. A hand-held UHF/VHF arrow antennae to 'manually' listen in to sats to begin with - which can then be mounted on a rotator at some future point, and then upgrade to a better receiving set at some point.

Doug

Spirit RAT is just brushing. Oppy RAT as far as I know, can still drill (given that it's spent it's life drilling into cottage cheese rather than basalt)

All Haz, Nav and Pan have dust - Oppy Pancam is probably the worst.

And, one issue we don't often mention. Spirit X-Band channel clashes with MRO.

They were essentially the same spacecraft, in the same way MPL and the '01 Surveyor lander were as well.

Read back through this thread Phil - it's been discussed.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/mer/2009063...g_in_090630.jpg

I noticed the mylar / something else material from in between the wheels peeling off

I wonder how the real one's on Mars are doing.

D

Just look at Hubble Insulation. It's crumbling off. It may be going thru more rapid thermal cycles than Apollo hardware - but there's evidence that long space exposure does end up ruining that sort of insulation material.

Well, that's not entirely true. Some statistics for you. Google Analytics (CPanel Analog Stats)

May, the last complete month, saw 26,521 (43,394) unique visitors, making 58,691 (88,506) visits, and viewing 273,619 (516,096) pages. Of those visits, google report 20.8% came from search engine results.

It's also on the first google page for things such as
meteor hitting earth
what colour is uranus
europa lander
fastest spacecraft
google mars 3d
what happened to mars pathfinder
phobos grunt
saturn map
hirise 3d
hirise dem
and...
rover route map

nprev, brian (and others).... Tim and Paolo (and others) are going way over and above the call of duty in giving us as much time as they do, and sharing as much information as they do. Please don't encourage, pressure or egg them on in providing anything more than they feel is appropriate.

Well - before the descoping of Mastcam's zoom..... it DID

Thank you for the invite, and kudos to the workshop attendees for letting me sit in for a few hours. It was fascinating to see the scientific process in action, and a very commendable mix of openness to each others ideas, and responsibility in getting the science right.

I work only half a mile down the road from that building, and had been there a few times for meetings and seminars etc, but never when the sun was shining, so I wanted to see if this calendar-sundial was working (and it was!)

Instruments don't tend to be centrally funded at ESA. Furthermore, as long as the instruments are cheaper than the LV - then ESA is 'up' on the deal.

The admin call is yeah - it's good to talk about the Apollo hardware. It's a history subject rather than a manned spaceflight subject

But we can knock the conspiracy stuff on the head. No data is going to convince them otherwise. VERY pointless even giving them a passing thought.

Phobos going into eclipse, I'd say. (Although not actually IN eclipse at that point)

Bingo - the whole thing at 100x speed. Kind of cool.

Just you Stu The downlink is finished as far as I can tell - going to see what the video looks like now

That is the point It's slow and painfull at the moment - but if it works and I can run it back at 10x speed or something - it'll be a hell of a view

Sounds like they're sending up commands to tweak the cameras.

Just figured out how to screen-grab a very long movie on my Mac for this thing....and BINGO - the pictures have started!

NTV silent here also.

Tried restarting NTV - and sound is back.

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...t=0#entry142273 for discussion during LOI / LCROSS flyby.

Oh - and...
"5 - 6:30 a.m. - LRO Spacecraft Enters Lunar Orbit - Live Event - GSFC (Public, Media and HD Channel)"

It's 5.20 am Eastern now...but this hasn't started.

So I'm very confused.

(no longer confused - coverage is just about to start)

1:20pm BST I reckon.

Apart from the few odd weeks when the UK's switch to summer time, but the US hasn't - then Eastern is -5, Pacific is -8.

5.20am Pacific, plus 8, is 1.20 pm UK.

5:10 a.m. PDT (1:10 p.m. GMT) is, I'm fairly sure....WRONG . 5.10 PDT is 12.10 GMT, 1.10pm BST. NOT 1.10pm GMT.

It's only 6am on 1945 now. You shouldn't start wondering where downlink is for 48 hrs.

IF we all jumped every time we didn't get every iota of indication of normality every day....this forum would fall apart very quickly.

No one's going to perfectly replicate the conditions and come up with a perfect sequence to extract Spirit. It's about approximations and broad techniques and ideas. It work at Meridiani for Opportunity

Not a chance. Hubble, for example, has a resolution on the moon of about 60m/pixel. A Kaguya like impact would make a crater perhaps half the size, with an ejecta perhaps of one pixel, maybe two. Certainly indistinguishable from normal Lunar gardening without a similar 'before' image to compare it to.

LRO will go hunting for it - I'm sure.