By Miles Mann WF1F,

MAREX-MG (Manned Amateur Radio Experiment, North American Division)

I have received some information which indicates the RS-19 Sputnik / Beatnik project may be cancelled. I have not been able to contact Energia to confirm this information at this time.

Check: http://www.swatch.com

 MAREX-MG ISS projects:

The MAREX-MG team has built and delivered three projects to the Russian Space Station Mir. (TNC Modem upgrade, RF DCI filer project and the SSTV Project). Because of the success of the three projects we have been asked by Energia to submit a proposal for additional projects for the International Space Station (Alpha). It was a great honor to be asked by Energia to submit a project proposal. The MAREX-MG team has submitted one draft proposal to build a SSTV project similar to the successful SSTV project currently on the Russian Space Station Mir. The ISS SSTV version will be very similar to the Mir version with a few additional features:

Tentative planed features:

Repeater Mode:

Allows ground stations to Relay their SSTV images, similar to a voice repeater.

Remote Control camera:

Ground Stations will be able to remotely steer the camera from Earth.

At the present time the MAREX-MG SSTV International Space Station project is in the proposal / consideration stage. If the project is selected, we hope to deliver the final systems by the end of the year. The project will be a joint project involving several satellite clubs. Each club will be responsible for a different part of the project (antennas, power supplies, etc.).

Last year MAREX-MG delivered three Kenwood/Tasco SSTV systems to Energia in Russia. One of the systems is currently on the Russian Space Station Mir. The other two SSTV systems are in Energia Russia and are being used for Demonstrations and testing system. A demonstration of the MAREX-MG SSTV system was given to the First cosmonaut ISS crew. The comments from the cosmonaut ISS crew were (I want this on my mission).

There is a new club in town. The Amsat-Russia is now an official club, congratulations to everyone at Amsat-RU. They even have their own web page http://www.amsat.ru/

I checked out the web page this week and it looks good. It is mostly in Russian, but there is some English sections.

Sergej Samburov RV3DR is the AMSAT-RU Vice President of Manned Space Flight activities. Sergej has been responsible for all of the successful Amateur Radio programs on board the Russian Space station Mir.

SOYUZ TM-29 arrived at Mir on February 20, 1999. Mir Soyuz TM-29 crew consisted of French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Heignere, Viktor Afanasyev and Slovakian Cosmonaut Ivan Bella

On February 28, some of the crew returned to earth, they were:

Slovak Ivan Bella and Gennadiy Paldalko.

Gennadiys mission lasted approximately 6 months (August 16 1998 – February 28 1999)

The remaining crew consists of:

The French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre Heignere

Cosmonaut Viktor Afanasyev

Cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev. Sergei mission began August 16, and is expected to last a total of 9-11 months.

Mir (base block) Peace 1986

Kvant-1 Quantum-1 1987

Kavant-2 Quantum-2 1989

Kristall Crystal 1990

Spektr Spectrum 1995

Priroda Nature 1996

Soyuz Union TM-29 1999

Progress Progress M-41 1999

The PMS activity was a little intermittent last week.

For more information about MAREX-MG and out past, present and future project, please visit

our new home page:

www.marexmg.org

For current tracking data, try the CelesTrak web page at http://celestrak.com/

Copyright 1999 Miles Mann, All Rights Reserved. This document may be freely distributed via the following means - Email (including listservers), Usenet, and World-Wide-Web. It may not be reproduced for profit including, but not limited to, CD ROMs, books, and/or other commercial outlets without prior written consent from the author.

Images received from the MAREX-MG SSTV system on the Russian Space Station Mir are considered public domain and may be freely distributed, without prior permission.

Miles WF1F

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