[amsat-bb] Re: Explorer I

[David Donaldson]

Guys, thanks for sharing of personal history!  
 But some engineers have all the fun and some of us just design
cellsite...lol

History is always welcome on this list!!

Sent with Wireless Sync from Verizon Wireless by DAVE
DONALDSON-Burnsville MN
Amateur radio: WB7DRU
Navy Mars: NNN0AXK

---- Original Message ----
From: "Edward Cole" <kl7uw at acsalaska.net>
Date: 2/2/08 11:47 am
To: "Davidoff, Martin" <MDAVIDOFF at ccbcmd.edu> ; "AMSAT-BB at amsat.org"
<AMSAT-BB at amsat.org>
Subj: [amsat-bb] Re: Explorer I
Martin,

I was involved with the MA-10 (MVM-73) mission as a project engineer 
at the 210-foot Goldstone tracking station that followed MA-10 around 
Venus and on to Mercury.  I was involved in the Venus dual-band (S/X) 
atmospheric study.  I was one of the two receiver operators that 
tracked MA-10's signal as it was occulted behind Venus.  The 
differential bending of the two microwave signals provided one of the 
first direct measurements of Venus' atmospheric density.

How time flies! (34-years).

73 Ed - KL7UW

At 08:54 AM 2/1/2008, Davidoff, Martin wrote:
>1 February 2008
>
>         Reading the comments on the Explorer I Spacecraft by Roy
(W0SL)
>and Dan (N8FGV) has certainly stimulated lots of old memories.
>
>         In late 1983 I attended a presentation by James Van Allen at a
>meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in DC convened to celebrate
>25 years in space.  At this point in time the development of the Space
>Transportation System (The Shuttle) was being seriously debated.
>
>         Most (!!!) scientists of the era thought the program was a
>political boondoggle whose costs would seriously impede the progress of
>real space science.  As Van Allen, a spokesperson for this group, put
it
>(my paraphrase) -- These guys claim they're going to reduce my launch
>costs by a factor of 100 by taking a scientific instrument with a one
>cubic foot volume, putting it in a bus and adding all the life support
>systems necessary for five people.
>
>         These past few weeks we've seen spectacular photos of Mercury
>taken by the Messenger Spacecraft on its first flyby of the planet.
How
>many people realize that the Messenger mission is the follow on to
>NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft which    mapped about 45 percent of the
>Mercury's surface during three flybys in 1974 and 1975.  Because (?) of
>the Shuttle Program it took us more than three decades to return.
>
>de K2ubc (Martin Davidoff)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On
>Behalf Of Roy
>Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 12:33 PM
>To: AMSAT BBS
>Subject: [amsat-bb] Explorer I
>
>If I'm not mistaken this is the 50th anniversary of the launch of
>Explorer I, the USA's first satellite put in orbit.  I listened to the
>telemetry broadcast on 108 mHz and recorded it.  The JPL had asked for
>the loan of any recordings made so I sent them out for their analysis.
>I received my original tapes back along with a supply of new reels of
>tape for use in making further recordings.  JPL sent copies on to the
>Air Force Research Center at Cambridge.
>
>I later received letters from JPL and the Air Force Research Center
>describing the data they had recovered from the recordings relative to
>micrometeorite impacts and other items.  It was a really exciting
period
>
>for Amateur Radio.
>
>--
>Roy -- W0SL
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73,
Ed - KL7UW
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