[time-nuts] Time and frequency practical exercise 2018 late quarter; precision measure of 432mhz band Sat in Lunar Orbit

Attila Kinali attila at kinali.ch
Sat Nov 18 11:28:02 UTC 2017


On Fri, 17 Nov 2017 13:26:18 -0800
Patrick Barthelow <apolloeme at gmail.com> wrote:

>  I am a member of  Team Alpha Cubesat.  We and some other teams are in the
> NASA CUBEQUEST challenge.  Launching next year a 6u  cubesat to lunar
> orbit.  I am not an expert at the freq measurement aspect of this, so, I am
> a Newbie. With tons of questions, but  I was surprised how quickly a check
> of the world's Hydrogen line MASERS got many to offer to come on board.
> MASER is overkill, but that is OK.  The Chief Scientist of the project is
> in the USA and wants to make measurements to the HZ level, at 437 mhz so
> with MASERS and Cesium, Rubidium we are overkill but it could generate
> STEM/Citizen Science participation.  That is what we are doing.  So the
> satellite will be on 437.5 mhz  plus  minus doppler.

Is there a scientific experiment behind this? Or is it just a cool
thing to show?


> I was surprised
> they did not just say go away... a half million dollar MASER is, or should
> be busy with similar but necessary measurements from paying customers.

It's not like you are taking away maser-time from someone else.
At most you are using one of the free output ports of the distribution
amplifier.

> This is like a modern day Frequency Measurement Test that ARRL did years
> ago.  I will in fact call ARRL to see if they want to play in this.

They are still running those. And quite a few get within 1Hz under more
difficult conditions than measuring a satellites frequency.

> And now know a school in Europe a Technical Instrumentation
> school, that offers a project to build a Hydrogen Line Maser using modern
> simpler, cheaper methods and hardware.

Oh? Really? Which school is that? And is the documentation to this
project available somewhere?


				Attila Kinali

-- 
You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common.
They don't alters their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to
fit the views, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the
facts that needs altering.  -- The Doctor



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