February 1, 2007 - Satellite Trivia

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY...

...America's first satellite, Explorer 1, was launched in 1958. It's on-board gieger counter found strong radiation coming from a belt of charged particles trapped in space by the Earth's magnetic field, now known as a Van Allen radiation belt. Although the satellite stopped transmitting data on May 23, 1958, (143 days after it was launched) it stayed in orbit for a longer time.

EXPLORER 1

TRIVIA QUESTION:

Launched in 1958, in what year did America's first satellite, Explorer 1, fall out of orbit?

A) 1960
B) 1970
C) 1980
D) 1990


TRIVIA ANSWER:

It made a fiery reentry over the Pacific Ocean on March 31, 1970, more than 12 years after it was launched.

Instrumentation consisted of a cosmic-ray detection package, an internal temperature sensor, three external temperature sensors, a nose-cone temperature sensor, a micrometeorite impact microphone, and a ring of micrometeorite erosion gauges. Data from these instruments were transmitted to the ground by a 60-milliwatt transmitter operating on 108.03 megahertz and a 10 milliwatt transmitter operating on 108.00 MHz.

Transmitting antennas consisted of two fibreglass slot antennas in the body of the satellite itself and four flexible whips forming a turnstile antenna. The rotation of the satellite about its long axis kept the flexible whips extended.

The discovery of the Van Allen Belts by the Explorer satellites was considered to be one of the outstanding discoveries of the International Geophysical Year.

For more, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_1

XXXXXXXXX NET CHECK IN's XXXXXXXXXXXX

Here's the list of folks that checked in to tonight's net along with their answers to the trivia question. Congrats to all of you who said 1970 and got this one correct!

WB6A - Pat - 1990
WB6ATV - Ron - 1960
KE6CZH - Robert - 1970
KG6DBL - Bill - 1970
W6DTS - Ted - 1980
K6FCC - Khalil - 1970
N6HY - Ernie - 1970
KB6IS - Madeline - 1970
KD6JEV - John - 1970
KG6KTC - Leon - 1970
KE6MSS - Thomas - 1980
W6NVY - Gary - 1960
KG6NWJ - Barry - 1980
KD6OBM - Jason - 1970
KF6PIH - Scott - 1960
K6QVZ - Joe - 1980
KG6RDA - Sidney - 1960
AD6UP - Louie - 1970
WA6USL - Murray - 1970
KF6YBM - Henry - 1970
KF6ZQM - Harry - 1960
N6ZZK - Theo - 1960

Thanks to you all!

73,

DE N6CIZ