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Oscar
AO-40 Failed To Phone Home... Com Re Established Dec 26 |
AO-40 making good progress !
The recovery efforts of AO-40 continue, mainly centered around housekeeping tasks designed to improve and stabilize the systems onboard the satellite. In addition, new software routines were successfully loaded that restored all Battery Charge Regulator functions and have resulted in a positive power budget with happy batteries. The command team is also pleased to report that the AO-40 Flight Software is now completely re-loaded (with the exception of D-block programming and WOD routines which will be done later).
Command station G3RUH (James Miller) reported that commanding AO-40 on L-band frequencies was fairly easy, thus it appears the L-band receiver seems to be work nominally.
A quick look at received telemetry instrumentation shows Helium pressure at essentially where it was following the first 400-N motor burn. Also, it appears that a few temperature and current sensors either failed and/or are showing incorrect values. The onboard sun sensors appear to be fine and are showing a solar angle that is near our predictions. The received spin rate telemetry is not accurate when compared to the actual spin as measured by the doppler wobbling of the S-band beacon. There appears to be a substantial spin increase. Clearly, more time is needed to analyze and understand what has happened here.
The good news is that the spacecraft is now fully under control. During the next several days additional software will be loaded and the various uplinks will be verified before a command is sent to turn on the 2-meter again.
(Thanks to Peter Guelzow, DB2OS via AMSAT News Service)
BULLETIN 361.02 FROM AMSAT HQ 12/26/00
TO ALL RADIO AMATEURS
AMSAT-NA President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH, provided ANS with the following statement regarding AO-40's recent S-band transmissions on 2401.305 MHz:
The excellent news of contact with AO-40 through the L-band uplink and S-band downlink has been received with joy and relief by AMSAT members around the world. AMSAT-DL issued a bulletin giving the news that everyone had hoped for on Christmas day, a fantastic gift to the Amateur Radio community.
On behalf of the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors, I wish to congratulate all those concerned in the recovery effort. While we all realize that this is just the first step in many, without making this initial 2-way contact with AO-40, recovery would not be possible. The recovery procedures are a true team effort between Project Leader Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC, the command stations and the other members of the P3D/AO-40 team.
In conclusion, I wish the team continued success, and I am sure that all of our thoughts are with them as they continue to work on behalf of AMSAT members world wide.
Thanks to AMSAT News Service and AMSAT-NA President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH, for this information
AO-40 Christmas present !
Peter Guelzow at Peter.Guelzow@arcormail.de says:
We just got information from New Zealand and Australia, that AO-40 is back on Air!!
At 2000 12 25 21:45 Ian, ZL1AOX sent a RESET command through L-band and an initialization block to switch the S2 S-Band transmitter on.
Just after the first attempt the S2 beacon came on 2401.305 MHz. The signal was about S5 to 6 which was comparable to when S2 was heard last during testing.
At 2000 12 26 00:30 signal strength has dropped to below S1 over a period of 30 minutes.
The beacon was confirmed by several other stations in Australia, including Graham VK5AGR.
Assuming this is true, we have a long way to go, but it's sure a step in the right direction!!!
The next thing is trying to upload IPS...
All previous attempts in the last 2 days to turn V-band On were unsuccessful, so we changed the strategy to try on S-Band..
Merry Christmas and Congratulations to Ian!!
73s Peter DB2OS
AMSAT issues Special Bulletin on AO-40 22/12/00
To All AMSAT Members,
It is proposed to hold an inquiry into the incident which has resulted in the loss of communication with AO-40. Although it is hoped that the loss of communication is a temporary situation, AMSAT believes that it is in the best interests of our organization to determine all the facts surrounding this incident and to make sure that a similar situation cannot happen again either on AO-40 or on a future satellite.
Our primary function at this time is still the recovery of AO-40, but we are also beginning to lay the plans for this inquiry.
When the P3D project was first developed, a Program Board was developed to oversee the project and put in place such other committees as may be necessary during the life of P3D (now AO-40). This Program Board represents the membership of each of the major organizations which have contributed to the P3D project (i.e. AMSAT-DL, AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-UK, DARC, and the ARRL). It is this Program Board that will meet on your behalf to determine the requirements of the inquiry, such as the terms of reference and the actual size of the Inquiry Committee itself.
The Program Board will be responsible to make sure that the inquiry meets the requirements of the membership and will be responsible for publicizing the results of the inquiry.
AMSAT-DL will present the Program Board with some initial suggestions on the scope, size, etc. in early January 2001. The Program Board will review these within two weeks and make any modifications that they feel are necessary (during a teleconference) also to be held in January.
It is hoped that the Inquiry Committee will start work shortly thereafter.
Although we do not wish to limit the scope of work, we would like the Inquiry Committee to report its findings relatively quickly, with this time to be determined by the Program Board. Any or all the AMSAT personnel who worked on the P3D project may be asked to assist the Inquiry Committee.
On a slightly different -- but related -- topic, in order to make sure that everyone is up to date with known facts, Peter Guelzow, DB2OS, is preparing an overall review of the loss of transmission incident, to show what has actually taken place and the actions that have been attempted to try and recover AO-40. This is being written in response to many requests for detailed information and will contain all known information. Peter, like the rest of us, is a volunteer with a normal job, but he hopes to have this review out shortly.
Another action that is underway is a review of future projects by the AMSAT-NA Project Committee. For some time we have been receiving input for the next generation of satellites and this information has been passed to the Project Committee for their review and recommendation. We realize that even when AO-40 is hopefully recovered, now is also the time to start looking at our next project(s). The Board of Directors of AMSAT-NA will meet in late February to receive initial recommendations from the Project Committee and to determine the next steps.
Wishing you all the very best for the holiday season,
Robin Haighton, VE3FRH
President AMSAT N.A.