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 Previous: No Lollies on Space Station, Commander Tells Youngsters in Space QSO |  Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 24, 2006--SuitSat-1 is now a confirmed "Silent Key." So says its sponsor, the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program. In operation for more than two weeks, SuitSat-1 easily outlasted initial predictions that it would transmit for about one week. ARISS International Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, says the mission captured imaginations around the world, despite a much-lower-than-expected signal strength.
"The outreach, press requests and visibility of SuitSat were absolutely amazing and appear to be unprecedented for a ham radio event," Bauer said. "While the press requests are just now starting to wane, we expect that you will continue to see SuitSat status reports and pictures in magazines, Web sites and other literature over the next few months." The more than nine million hits at the SuitSat Web site attest to the level of interest in the SuitSat-1 experiment, Bauer noted, calling the tally "quite impressive indeed!"
Last Reports
Bob King, VE6BLD, in Alberta posted the last confirmed reception of SuitSat-1's voice audio, Saturday, February 18, at 0332 UTC. Richard Crow, N2SPI, in New York received the last confirmed telemetry. He copied SuitSat-1's battery voltage dropping precipitously to a low of 18.3 V before the novel satellite ceased to transmit.
Hearing SuitSat-1's puny signal strength generally required gain antennas, but not always. "Many, including me, heard SuitSat with a 3-element Arrow antenna attached to a handheld radio," said Bauer, whose daughter Michelle recorded the English-language voice identification. Another challenge to signal reception, he said, was the very deep fading due to the suit's rotation in orbit.
"One great positive that came from these issues is that it challenged the ham radio community worldwide to improve their station receive capabilities so that they could pull every bit of signal from SuitSat," Bauer remarked.
 Backdropped by the blackness of space and Earth's horizon, SuitSat-1--a spacesuit turned satellite--began its orbit around Earth after release by the Expedition 12 crew during a February 3 space walk. An unneeded Russian Orlan spacesuit outfitted with three batteries, internal sensors and a radio transmitter, SuitSat-1 faintly transmitted recorded voices of school children to Amateur Radio operators worldwide. The suit will enter the atmosphere and burn up in a few weeks. |
 wing to his superior antenna system, Bob King, VE6BLD, was able to hear virtually every pass over his Alberta location. He called SuitSat-1 "a very exciting experience." |
 SuitSat-1 fans: Students at R. Tait McKenzie Public School in Almonte, Ontario. |
Myths Debunked
Bauer says reports that SuitSat-1 was non-operational and that the battery was frozen shortly after deployment are false. "This never occurred," he stressed. "As the telemetry has shown, temperatures within the suit were a somewhat comfortable 12-16 degrees C during the entire mission. So the 'frozen battery' myth is just that--a myth."
So, he adds, is the tale of SuitSat-1's early demise and resurrection. "It was alive and operated flawlessly, except the signal strength issue, from the time the crew flipped the switches until the battery power was used up," he said.
Bauer says he's also not ready to buy into an AMSAT calculation that the transmitter may have been putting out between 1 and 10 mW. "More precisely, the signal strength was much lower than expected," he said. "It is entirely possible that the radio output could have been at 500 mW, and the feed line, connector or the antenna caused the problem." The SuitSat team has only just begun looking at what might have caused the weak signal, he added.
Educational Outreach
Many schools around the world participated in the SuitSat-1 experiment. From the R. Tait McKenzie Public School in Almonte, Ontario, Neil Carleton, VE3NCE, expressed his appreciation. "Thank you to the SuitSat team for the opportunity to have students involved in such an exciting space project," he said. "It's been a week of adventure, and I'm happy to report on the involvement of my class as part of our grade 6 science studies of space."
Bauer says the ARISS team plans to harvest the numerous SuitSat-1 downloads to develop lesson plans for schools. "One great idea is to use the audio with the spin fades as well as the EVA [space walk] release video to let students determine whether the spin rate slows down, speeds up or remains the same during the mission---a simple physics experiment using ham radio!" he said. "We have many other lesson plan ideas too."
SuitSat-1 Likely to Deorbit this Spring
Although no longer transmitting, SuitSat-1 continues to orbit Earth. An analysis done prior to deployment predicted a 70 to 120-day orbital life for SuitSat-1, putting the satellite's deorbit anywhere from mid-April until early June. "The orbit life, of course, is dependent on the atmospheric drag that the satellite experiences," Bauer said.
An extra object--categorized as "debris"--has been observed to have detached from SuitSat-1 and essentially become a satellite itself. "This object is most likely one of the SuitSat gloves or the student CD, which was attached on the outside of the suit," Bauer speculated.
There has been at least one visual sighting of SuitSat. "Let us know if you see SuitSat," Bauer said. "I would expect you will need binoculars to see it."
"Tremendously Successful" Despite Signal Problems
"While the transmission part of the SuitSat experiment was not stellar, SuitSat-1 has been tremendously successful in several areas," Bauer continued. These include capturing the imagination of students and the general public worldwide, gaining positive media attention for Amateur Radio, sending students' artwork, signatures and voices into space and onboard SuitSat-1 and--most important--successfully deploying a ham radio satellite in a spacesuit from the ISS, demonstrating to the space agencies that it can be done safely.
 ISS Expedition 12 Flight Engineer Valeri Tokarev loads up SuitSat-1 prior to its February 3 launch during a space walk. [NASA Photo] |
"The ARISS international team was able to fabricate, test and deliver a safe ham radio system to the ISS team three weeks after the international space agencies agreed to allow SuitSat to happen," Bauer pointed out. "This was a tremendous feat in of itself."
Those who heard SuitSat-1 qualify for a special SuitSat certificate. The AMSAT Web site has information on how to obtain yours.
The Future
The AMSAT/ARISS team already is looking forward to a SuitSat-2. "Correcting the signal strength issue would be a top priority for this flight," Bauer commented. "So would be a longer-term power generation device, like solar arrays."
Bauer says SuitSat-1--also known as Radioskaf and designated by AMSAT as AO-54--represented a space pioneering effort. "While we did not have total success, we captured the imagination of students and the general public worldwide. And we have learned a lot from this activity. This will help us and others grow from this experience."
More information on the SuitSat-1 project, including QSL information,
is available on the AMSAT
Web site and on the SuitSat Web site.
| Previous: No Lollies on Space Station, Commander Tells Youngsters in Space QSO | Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
