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AMSAT OSCAR 40 Sends Earth Photo

Posted by michael on from the flying-high dept.

An Anonymous Coward sent in: "Some of you might remember, that the Phase 3-D Amateur satellite "AMSAT OSCAR 40", launched in November 2000 by an ARIANE 5, was almost dead after an accident with it's 400N propulsion system... However, the satellite survived and is pretty alive. Today it sent spectacular pictures from its color camera to earth from a distance of about 50.000km using the wide angle camera. The satellite provides also excellent communication on 2.4 GHz (S-Band) for radio amateurs worldwide. Pictures and status information can be found here and also here."

6 comments

  1. Kind of interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But the site waw such a pain in the ass to navigate I had to abort.

    1. Re:Kind of interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have to learn a very special geek dialect to understand this site.

      The codes and symbols mean something special to Amature Radio Enthusiasts and related types.

      They are a subspecies of geek that uses very expensive and obscure equipment to communicate around the world.

      Personally I prefer to use a telephone to accomplish this same task.

  2. More news about it on ARRL's website by Alan+Shield · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2001/08/10/4/

  3. Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Slow news day this is
    This is a thread much near death
    I am a bored troll

  4. Possibilities for Abuse? by Starquake · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can just imagine some poor, lonely guy in charge of re-positioning the satellite "accidentally" sending it over some nude beaches and snapping off a few full-color shots.

  5. And a helluvalot cheaper than Triana by Tackhead · · Score: 1

    Nuff said. Maddest props to the OSCAR crew.