_                   
                                                         |_|                  
      V   V   SSSS   OOO   PPPP                 \__      |_|      __/         
      V   V  S      O   O  P   P                   --____/ \____--            
      V   V   SSS   O   O  PPPP                    _ _ _ --- _ _ _            
       V V       S  O   O  P                      |_|_|_|  @|_|_|_|           
        V    SSSS    OOO   P                             o-o                  
                                                          /                   
      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                        <)                    

HALCA DOWN

HALCA suffered another loss of attitude control in October, and is currently being checked during each tracking pass to determine the evolution of its spin axis and monitor the temperature of on-board components. One of the reaction wheels was observed to be drawing a higher current than usual on the day before attitude control was lost, and this is thought to be the most likely cause of the loss of control. Options for recovery depend on the temperature of on-board components, which in turn depends on the satellite's orientation, and so a number of scenarios are being considered.

VSOP-2 PROPOSED

The formal VSOP-2 proposal has been submitted to ISAS' Science Steering Committee. The proposed VSOP-2 satellite will carry a 9m diameter off-axis antenna, observing at 8, 22 and 43 GHz, with cooled receivers at 22 and 43 GHz, a downlink bit rate of 1 Gbps, a 25,000km apogee, 1,000km perigee and 7.5hr orbit. There will be a phase-referencing capability, and orbit determination of one-to-several cm accuracy. This is all predicated upon a total "wet" mass (i.e., inclusive of thruster fuel) of ~910 kg and an M-V launch in 2010 at the earliest.

The VSOP-2 proposal is one of four mission proposals submitted to ISAS this year (a new record!). There is one other science mission and two engineering missions. The plans for all these missions will be presented at the Space Science Symposium at ISAS in January. Sub-committees have been established to evaluate the proposals, with ultimately one mission to be approved by ISAS this round. More will be known after the evaluation committees return their decisions in the early months of next year.

The VSOP mission owes its success in large part to the support and cooperation of international partners. The success of VSOP-2 will similarly require significant participation from the agencies and observatories around the world. A number of colleagues kindly contributed (at short notice!) letters of support for inclusion in the VSOP-2 proposal and their efforts are gratefully acknowledged.

JAXA

Esko Valtoaja has pointed out that in Finnish JAXA, written and pronounced as "jaksa!" (with the "j" pronounced as an english "y") is an exhortation or an encouragement: "Don't give up!" or "Go on!". It appears to be very similar to the Japanese "Ganbatte!", and so it seems (see the previous VSOP news) that JAXA is a better name in Hindi or Finnish than in Japanese!

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi