| WARC |
| WESTCUMB AMATEUR RADIO CLUB |
| Westmorland County, NB & Cumberland County, NS |
| SuitSat - 1 |
| The following email came to me via Jim, VE1AFH as a forward from Don Courcy, VE1CY: FYI An empty Spacesuit to orbit the Earth. To be called SuitSat. The batteries on SuitSat are expected to last 2 to 4 days. Launch is February 3rd. Should be heard on 145.990 MHz with simple equipment. Click on the URL below to learn more, including when it will pass overhead. Donald - VE1CY ----- Original Message ----- From: NASA Science News To: NASA Science News Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 2:51 PM Subject: Disembodied Spacesuit set to orbit Earth NASA Science News for January 26, 2006 A very strange satellite is about to go into Earth orbit. It's "SuitSat," an empty spacesuit thrown overboard from the International Space Station. Using a simple police scanner or ham radio, you can listen to SuitSat when it orbits over your hometown. FULL STORY at: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/26jan_suitsat.htm?list133484 The Science@NASA Podcast feed is available at: http://science.nasa.gov/podcast.xml. Below is an article which appeared in the "Sunday Herald" January 29th edition: |
| Recent SuitSat-1 Information: 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: Canada: Radio Amateurs of Canada, SuitSat QSL, 720 Belfast Rd--Suite 217, Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z5 Canada 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 links below) 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. Current thinking is SuitSat is transmitting, but far weaker than expected. Several reliable reports of short snatches of the voice and SSTV signals have been reported. It is recommended that you continue to listen during passes over your area. Please report any positive contact only. Information on the Project: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/26jan_suitsat.htm Software for Tracking SuitSat-1: http://science.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/25/JPass.asp Reception Reports of SuitSat-1: http://www.suitsat.org/ |
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