ARISS-EUROPE NEWS BULLETIN –
Message from Frank Bauer, ARISS chairman, re SuitSat-1.
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Silver Spring, Maryland
Paraphrasing
Mark Twain....the demise of SuitSat-1 is high
exaggerated!!
It is
now nearly 24 hours since the successful deployment of the SuitSat-1
experiment. These past 24 hours have been a wild ride of
emotions...tremendous highs...deep lows when people reported no signals and
said SuitSat-1 was dead and now....some optimism.
It is
absolutely clear that SuitSat-1 is alive. It
was successfully turned on by the ISS crew prior to
deploy and the timing, micro-controller functions and audio appear to be
operating nominally. The prime issue appears to be an extremely weak
signal.
I have
heard several recordings and have monitored two passes today. When the
signal is above the noise level, you can clearly hear partials of the student
voices, the station ID and the SSTV signal. One
of the complicating factors in reception is the very deep fades that occur due
to the spin of SuitSat.
Based on
the information we know thus far, one can narrow down the issue to the antenna,
the feedline, the transmitter output power and/or any
of the connections in between. Through your help, we would like to narrow
down the issue further and also gather some internal telemetry from the
Suit. If the transmitter is running at full power, we would expect the
Suit to end operations in the next few days to a week. If it is not, then
it will operate much longer. Since we do not know how long this
experiment will last, we ask for those with powerful receive stations to listen
for Suitsat---especially during direct overhead
passes when the Suit is closest to your area. If you can record these
passes and send the audio to us, it would be most appreciated. We will
continue to be optimistic that this issue will right itself before the
batteries are depleted. So please KEEP LISTENING!
Based on
what we have learned, we would like to provide the following guidelines to save
you time and facilitate gathering information.
1)
You need as high a gain antenna as possible with mast mounted pre-amps.
An arrow is the minimal set...it provides very brief snipets
of the communications. HTs and scanners won't cut it.
2)
I would not waste your time on passes below 40 degrees elevation. SuitSat is too far from your station to receive a reliable
signal. We have found that closest approach provides several seconds of SuitSat communication with 22 element yagis.
3)
The "gold" we are looking for right now is the telemetry information
and how long the vehicle stays operational. So if you hear any of the
telemetry, please let us know.
We are
also working to get the voice repeater set up on ISS
to downlink SuitSat audio on 437.80 in the event that
the ISS Kenwood radio can receive the SuitSat transmissions. The repeater may be
operational as early as mid-day Sunday. Please do NOT transmit on 145.99,
voice or packet, until we have confirmed that SuitSat
is no longer transmitting. These transmissions interfere with our ability
to hear SuitSat.
While
the transmission part of the SuitSat experiment has
not been stellar, SuitSat-1 has been tremendously
successful in several areas. Some of these successes include:
-We have
captured the imagination of students and the general public worldwide through
this unique experiment
-The
media attention to the SuitSat project represents one
of the biggest ever for amateur radio
-We have
had well over 2 million internet hits on www.suitsat.org
today
-Our
student's creative artwork, signatures and voices have been carried in space
and are on-board the spacesuit---the students are now space travelers
as the Suit rotates and orbits the Earth
-Carried
in the spacesuit CD are pictures of Roy Neal, K6DUE,
and Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE,
two of our colleagues who have contributed to the ARISS
program and have since passed away
-We
successfully deployed an amateur radio satellite in a Spacesuit from the ISS, demonstrating to the space agencies that this can be
safely done.
-This ARISS international team was able to fabricate, test and
deliver a safe ham radio system to the ISS team 3
weeks after the international space agencies agreed to allow SuitSat to happen. This was a tremendous feat in of
itself.
SuitSat-1/Radioskaf is a space pioneering
effort. Pioneering efforts are challenging. Risk is high. But
the future payoff is tremendous. As you have seen, we have not had total
success. But we have captured the imagination of the students and the
general public. And we have already learned a lot from this
activity. This will help us and others grow from this experience.
Keep
your spirits up and let's continue to be optimistic. And please
keep monitoring!!
73,
Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO
ARISS International Chairman
AMSAT-NA VP for Human Spaceflight Programs