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These words will echo from space in the near future, inspiring students, exciting ham radio operators and touching the world.
Figure 1 - Russian Orlan Suit
If all goes as planned, a unique Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA)—or Spacewalk will be conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) in early February 2006. During this spacewalk, the ISS crew will push a Russian spacesuit overboard---with no humans in it, of course! But this Spacesuit holds the hopes, dreams and creativity of students around the world. And for a week or two, this Suit-robot-satellite will take on a life of its own---parroting students voices from around the world, voicing down suit health telemetry and sending a special commemorative picture to all who want to receive it.
Suitsat-1 (also called Radioskaf or Radio Sputnik in Russian) mission activities will be conducted on the amateur radio (ham radio) frequencies, a bit above the FM broadcast band. The voice signals can be picked up with ham radio receivers and FM VHF (Very High Frequency) scanners—like police-band scanners.
Students, scouts, teachers, ham radio operators, and the general public are encouraged to track the space suit, hear the conversations from space, copy the suit telemetry and capture the picture. A special certificate will be distributed to those who receive the voice signals and those who capture the picture. We also will have a special award for those students who receive the “special words” that are embedded in the messages from our SuitSat student “crew members.” These special words are in different languages---English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese. So you are encouraged to record the SuitSat downlink audio and get help from fellow students who know these languages.
FIG 1
Also included in this spacesuit is a computer Compact Disk (CD) with images of over 300 items collected from schools and educational organizations around the world. These include creative works of art from students as well as student signatures, school or scout logos, and class or group pictures. Students, schools and educational organizations that participated in the development of this disk earlier this year will all be part of the SuitSat spacewalk---as their creative works, signatures and pictures all float in space!
The following will provide more details on the Suitsat-1 mission and provide you information on how you and your school can participate.
The Suit and On-Board Equipment
Figure 2 - SuitSat Antenna and Interface Control Box
Figure 3 - Crew Interface Control Box
Figure 4 - SuitSat Interface Control, Transmitter and Digitalker/Micro Controller
Figure 5 - Kenwood TH-K2 Transceiver
Through the miracle of ham radio, the ingenuity of the international space agencies, the help of students and schools, and the tireless work of a few volunteer “rocket scientists” Suitsat-1 was born.
SuitSat is sponsored by ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station), an international working group consisting of volunteers from national amateur radio societies (the American Radio Relay League in the U.S.) and the internationally-based Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT).
The idea for SuitSat was first conceived by the ARISS-Russia team, led by Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, and was extensively discussed at the joint AMSAT Symposium/ARISS International Partner meeting in October 2004. The project, is being led by project manager A. P. Alexandrov and Deputy Project Manager A. Poleshuk from RSC Energia, located in Korolev (Moscow area) Russia. The project was developed primarily by a joint US/Russian team. On the US side, the hardware project development was led by AMSAT member Lou McFadin, W5DID. Embedded in the Russian Orlon Space Suit (Figure 1) are two boxes housing the ham radio transmitter and the micro-controller and electronics that stores and plays back the digital voice and video recordings. Also inside the spacesuit will be some batteries to power the system and the “School Spacewalk” CD. On the outside of the spacesuit is the SuitSat antenna and the crew interface control box---the crew interface device that turns the SuitSat power on. See figures 2 to 3. Prior to the spacewalk, the ISS crew connects cables to the two internal boxes (the Kenwood transmitter box and the micro-controller electronics box), figure 4, and stores these two boxes in a fabric container that is housed inside the space suit (see figure 6). Next, they mount the antenna and the interface control box to the exterior of the suit helmet as shown in figure 2. Next, the batteries, interface control box and antennas are all connected to the two internal boxes with special connecting cables. The SuitSat is then ready for deployment. Once the crew is outside on their EVA, they turn all three switches on the control box to the ON position and deploy the spacesuit from ISS. Their objective is to put Suitsat in a retrograde orbit so it “de-orbits” relative to ISS. This orbit will appear from the ground to be ahead of the ISS, while it is actually slowing down and is below ISS.
SuitSat-1 Transmission Specifics
All transmissions will be on 145.990 MHz FM. This is in the VHF (2 meter) portion of the amateur radio band. It can easily be picked up with a simple VHF hand-talkie ham radio, although ground-based antennas with higher gain are preferred to hear SuitSat for the entire 10 minute pass. SuitSat audio can also be received using a police band scanner. An external antenna is highly encouraged. SuitSat will be transmitting 0.5 watts into the same type of antenna currently used on the ISS ham radio station.
Additional Downlink Frequency and Information for Ham Radio Operators
Since SuitSat will be operating on the ISS world wide packet uplink frequency of 145.99 MHz, it is requested that all packet operations on that frequency be suspended for the duration of the SuitSat transmissions. Keeping transmissions off the downlink frequency will help to avoid local interference to the 1/2 watt downlink signal from SuitSat.
The ISS crossband repeater is under consideration for being temporarily reconfigured to listen for the SuitSat transmissions and then retransmit them on 437.80 MHz. It is hoped that persons with minimal equipment might have a better chance of hearing the SuitSat retransmissions from the crossband repeater since ISS has a power output of 10 watts. Please help us to avoid interference problems by not using the crossband repeater while SuitSat is active because anything else the repeater hears on 145.99 MHz will interfere with the SuitSat retransmissions
Figure 2 Above - SuitSat Antenna and Interface Control Box
There is no one inside Suitsat-1 as it floats away from the International Space Station above Earth on February 3, 2006. Suitsat is a worn out Russian Orlan space suit of a type used by Russian, American and European astronauts. Suitsat was released by the ISS Expedition 12 crewmembers during a spacewalk. The odd satellite was outfitted by the crew with three batteries, internal sensors and a radio transmitter, which faintly transmitted recorded voices of school children to amateur radio operators worldwide.
What do you do with a worn-out spacesuit if you're a couple of hundred miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station?
If you were the Expedition 12 crew, you would stuff it with some science instruments and a radio transmitter, and toss the old suit overboard.
It would float around the outside of the station for a while then gradually descend into the thicker atmosphere below where it would burn up. Along the way, students on the ground around the world would learn a lot about space and science.
Science fiction? Satsuit was real and was launched by hand from the orbiting International Space Station on February 3, 2006.
The free-floating space suit became an unmanned satellite transmitting pre-recorded voices.
Russian Orlan spacesuits have a finite lifetime after which they no longer can be worn. In the past, unwanted objects aboard the ISS, including old spacesuits, have been sent down into the atmosphere to burn as trash.
This time, however, ISS Expedition 12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev sent the old spacesuit on one final mission. During a spacewalk outside the station, the crew shoved the empty suit off into space.
They called it Suitsat-1. It was known in Russia as Radioskaf or Radiosputnik.
Down below, on the surface of Earth, amateur radio operators and listeners with police scanners and other radio equipment listened for the Suitsat transmissions and voices.
Flight success. The satellite transmitted data as it orbited Earth. Listeners on the ground heard its radio signals for slightly more than two weeks, until February 18, 2006.
Suitsat-1 was sponsored by Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), an organization of volunteers from national amateur radio societies around the world, and the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT).
Suitsat signals were weak, according to AMSAT, but still were heard on the ground on the satellite's 145.990 MHz FM frequency. Speculation about the weak signal centered on low battery power, weak transmitter output or bad antenna connection. Hearing such low-power signals on the ground required sensitive VHF receiving equipment and high-gain antennas.
AMSAT confirmed the spacesuit's electronic system had been turned on successfully by the ISS crew prior to deploying it; the timing, micro-controller and audio operated properly; and the last reception on the ground was on February 18.
Designated AMSAT OSCAR 54 (AO-54), SuitSat-1 was heard by ham radio operators and school students around the world.
Frank H. Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT vice president for human spaceflight programs and ARISS international chairman, reported that an unknown object had become detached from Suitsat and had become a separate satellite. The object may have been one of the spacesuit gloves or the School Spacewalk compact disc (CD) which had been attached to the outside of the spacesuit.
NASA TV image of spacewalking astronauts releasing Suitsat (right center).
Not exactly empty. Although no person was inside the suit, it had a radio transmitter, temperature sensors and materials created by students around the world, including voice recordings and artwork.
The suit broadcast on the amateur radio – a.k.a. ham radio – frequency of 145.990 MHz. That's above the frequencies of 88-108 MHz where FM radio stations broadcast and is in the amateur radio VHF 2-meter band. Suitsat used narrow-band FM (NBFM) modulation to carry its messages.
The radio box inside the spacesuit housed the Kenwood TH-K2 ham transceiver. Another box inside the suit held a micro-controller and electronics that stored and played back the digital voice and video recordings.
Also inside the suit were the batteries that powered the system.
On the outside of the suit was the radio antenna, a crew interface control box that turned on power to Suitsat, and the students' School Spacewalk compact disc (CD).
Suitsat's transmissions were received easily by anyone with simple, inexpensive equipment such as a police-band scanner, VHF FM receiver, or a ham radio VHF handie-talkie.
Best reception came when the receiving antenna was outside and clear of objects blocking signals from the sky. Higher locations had better reception. A good high and clear place allowed a listener to hear it longer each time Suitsat passed overhead.
