On the HamRadioHelpGroup mailling list, Bob KE5WZK notes:
While studying for college courses I learned about this upcoming program. Ham operators are participating by receiving data. How cool is that?
The article says:
[On Friday, January 23, 2009,] NASA researchers announced an event that will transform our view of the Sun and, in the process, supercharge the field of solar physics for many years to come.
“On February 6, 2011,” says Chris St. Cyr of the Goddard Space Flight Center, “Super Bowl XLV will be played in Arlington, Texas.”
Wait … that’s not it.
“And on the same day,” he adds, “NASA’s two STEREO spacecraft will be 180 degrees apart and will image the entire Sun for the first time in history.”
…details of the project skipped…
experienced ham radio operators can participate in this historic mission by helping NASA capture STEREO’s images. The busy Deep Space Network downloads data from STEREO only three hours a day. That’s plenty of time to capture all of the previous day’s data, but NASA would like to monitor the transmissions around the clock.
“So we’re putting together a ‘mini-Deep Space Network’ to stay in constant contact with STEREO,” says Bill Thompson, director of the STEREO Science Center at Goddard.
The two spacecraft beam their data back to Earth via an X-band radio beacon. Anyone with a 10-meter dish antenna and a suitable receiver can pick up the signals. The data rate is low, 500 bits per second, and it takes 3 to 5 minutes to download a complete image.
So far, the mini-Network includes stations in the United Kingdom, France and Japan—and Thompson is looking for more: “NASA encourages people with X-band antennas to contact the STEREO team. We would gladly work with them and figure out how they can join our network.”
Leave a Reply