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 Previous: White House to Tap Virginian as Fifth FCC Member |  Next: Surfin': Transistor Radio Number One, the TR-1 |
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 3, 2006--"SuitSat-1" is now orbiting Earth! ISS Expedition 13 flight engineer Valery Tokarev released the unique and enthusiastically anticipated satellite into orbit today at 2303 UTC as he and ISS Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, began a six-hour space walk. SuitSat-1 consists of a surplus Russian Orlan spacesuit reconfigured to function as a free-floating Amateur Radio transmit-only satellite. Activated at 2259 UTC, the satellite was programmed to come to life some 16 minutes later on 145.99 MHz. The 16-minute delay is said to be a crew safety measure. SuitSat-1's deployment over the south-central Pacific Ocean was the first task of the space walk.
"Dosvidanya! Good-bye, Mr Smith!" Tokarev said in Russian as SuitSat, unhooked from its tether and pushed away from the space station, tumbled slowly away into the void. "It's moving at the specified acceleration." A project of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program, SuitSat drifted off until it appeared as a mere speck silhouetted against brightly illuminated Earth below.
The NASA trajectory operations officer at Mission Control called it "a good deploy within the cone for safety to ensure no re-contact with the International Space Station." NASA-TV provided live coverage of the space walk and SuitSat-1's release.
The Amateur Radio community, students, scanner enthusiasts, space fans and others have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the most novel satellite ever to orbit Earth. Using the call sign RS0RS, SuitSat-1 will transmit its voice message "This is SuitSat-1 RS0RS!" in several languages plus telemetry and an SSTV image on an eight-minute cycle as it orbits Earth. The three batteries powering the satellite are expected to last about a week, and SuitSat-1 should re-enter Earth's atmosphere after several weeks of circling the globe.
SuitSat-1's 500 mW transmitter will report mission time, suit temperature and battery voltage (28 V is nominal) down to Earth. Its single Robot 36-format SSTV image is said to be similar in resolution to a cell-phone quality picture. SuitSat-1's signal should be strong enough to hear using a VHF transceiver or scanner and a simple antenna. Its payload also includes a CD containing hundreds of school pictures, artwork, poems and student signatures.
Those who copy the SuitSat-1 transmissions on 145.99 MHz are asked to post a real-time report on the SuitSat Web site. Initially, its orbit will approximately coincide with that of the ISS. Later, as SuitSat-1's orbit begins to decay, it may show up a few minutes earlier than the space station. A listing of ISS passes and a graph showing the position of the ISS are available on the AMSAT Web site. JH3XCU/1 in Japan posted the first reception reports, noting a weak signal.
ARISS invites schools and other educational groups--formal or otherwise--to post educational outreach reports and SSTV images via e-mail.
Plans call for configuring the NA1SS Phase 2 station aboard the ISS as a crossband repeater and retransmitting the 145.990 MHz signal on 437.800 MHz FM. The Phase 2 transceiver runs 10 W. The ISS packet system will remain shut down during the SuitSat-1 mission.
ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, credits ARISS-Russia's Sergei Samburov, RV3DR, and his colleagues with coming up with the spacesuit-cum-satellite concept. SuitSat-1--called Radioskaf or Radio Sputnik in Russian--is a first test of that idea, he says. If successful, there's another unneeded Orlan spacesuit still aboard the ISS.
Send signal reports accompanied by a large (9x12 inch) self-addressed, stamped envelope to the appropriate address:
USA: ARRL, SuitSat QSL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA
Canada: Radio Amateurs of Canada, SuitSat QSL, 720 Belfast Rd--Suite 217, Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z5 Canada
Europe: F1MOJ - Mr CANDEBAT Christophe, SuitSat Europe QSL Manager, 7 Rue Roger Bernard, 30470 AIMARGUES FRANCE
Japan: SuitSat Japan QSL, JARL International Section, Tokyo 170-8073 JAPAN
Russia: Alexander Davydov, RN3DK Novo-Mytishchinsky prospekt 52-111 Mytishchi 18, Moskovskaya obl. 141018, RUSSIA
Other countries: Use the US or Canadian address above.
Students will receive a certificate commemorating their reception. Those who receive the SSTV picture or copy the "special words" will get a special endorsement on their certificate. The special words--in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese--are embedded in the pre-recorded greetings in multiple languages from students around the globe.
There's additional information about SuitSat on the AMSAT Web site. See "This is SuitSat-1 RS0RS!" by Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. AMSAT Video News features Bauer's SuitSat presentation.
SuitSat-1 has piqued the imagination of the news media over the past couple of weeks. In addition to articles in The New York Times, the Houston Chronicle and Associated Press, National Public Radio, Fox News, CNN, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, MSNBC and others also produced broadcast or cable news reports. A magazine article is set to appear in Aviation Week and Space Technology.
ARISS is an international educational outreach with US participation from ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.
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