[RVRC] Lunar orbiter with ham radio payload

[Marvin Bronstein]

4M Moon Orbiter Carrying Ham Radio Payload Launching October 23
The Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M) lunar flyby experiment, which will carry an Amateur Radio payload, was scheduled to launch from China on October 23 with lunar flyby to occur, nominally, on October 28. During the lunar flyby, the spacecraft will be about nearly 248,000 miles from Earth and between 7440 and 14,480 miles from the Moon. 

The ham radio payload will transmit continuously on 145.990 MHz using JT65B mode, which can be decoded using a version of the free WJST software that Joe Taylor, K1JT, developed especially for this mission. The 14 kg battery-powered payload known as 4M-LXS, was

developed at LUXspace in Luxembourg. 

The launch was set for approximately 1759 UTC on October 23, and the lunar flyby will take place at 0033 UTC on October 28. 4M is expected to begin transmitting on October 23 between 1917 UTC and 1927 UTC 

Gislain Ruy, LX2RG, of LUXspace said ground stations in the Southern Hemisphere are best situated to for the spacecraft's first signals. 

The onboard transmitter will put 1.5 W into a quarter-wave monopole antenna. -- Thanks to LUXspace, AMSAT-UK, AMSAT News Service