Sub launch: Cosmos 1, the first solar sail, will begin its epic voyage from underneath Earth's Barents Sea. The mission will be launched on a Volna rocket (converted Intercontinental ballistic missiles of the type once aimed at the United States) from a Russian nuclear submarine. Credit: Michael Carroll, The Planetary Society

Solar Sail Mission - Amateur Radio Reports Requested

Long-time SeeSat-L contributor Vladimir Agapov has contacted me and confirmed that amateur radio observations will be highly useful to the Cosmos 1 project.

For example, accurate radio frequency measurements for Doppler calculations (even AOS, LOS or zero-Doppler times).

The Russian company "Space Informatics and Analytical Systems JSC" ("KIA Systems") has developed various software for measurements processing, catalogue maintenance etc.,
and is responsible for ballistic and navigation support of the Solar Sail flight, under contract to Lavochkin Association, which developed and produced the spacecraft for the Planetary Society.

KIA Systems has created a special e-mail account, to which I will forward all radio observations that I receive via HearSat-L or directly, including each observer's name, station name and coordinates.

Please include the precision of frequency and time measurements. Timing accuracy need not be better than 0.001 s.

Information on the spacecraft's radio frequencies is provided here:

http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/parameters.html

"The spacecraft will broadcast telemetry at two different frequencies: 401.5275 MHz (UHF band) and 2250 MHz (S-band). However, the broadcast will not be continuous; it is turned only when the spacecraft passes over one of the ground stations in our network."

Information on the tracking stations is provided here:

http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/tracking_stations.html

http://planetary.org/solarsail/images/ground_station_map_800x442.jpg

During the first day after launch, it would be highly desirable to report observations as soon as possible.

Scheduled Launch Time: June 21, 2005 at 19:46:09 UTC

Ted Molczan

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