p2pnet - rss feed: Satellite for radio amateurs
p2p news / p2pnet: A surplus Russian spacesuit fitted with a radio transmitter will soon be broadcasting on FM 145.990 MHz to radio amateurs everywhere.
As we wrote this, the transmissions were scheduled to start in 7 hours 33 minutes.
The Orlan spacesuit will become an independently orbiting satellite when it’s deployed by the crew of the International Space Station during an EVA.
"Running only on internal batteries within the spacesuit, SuitSat will have a limited, but interesting lifetime beaming down special messages and an SSTV image as it floats in space," says the SuitSat site.
"Having no external thrust to adjust its orbit after it is hand-deployed during the EVA, SuitSat will be in a free-floating, but decaying orbit around Earth. It is expected to remain in orbit up to 6 weeks after being deployed."
SuitSat transmissions will include special international voice messages, spacesuit telemetry, and a pre-programmed SSTV picture on its 145.990 MHz FM downlink.
"If you have already received the packet station or heard the ISS crew on 2-meter voice, then you already have most of what you need," says the site.
"Amateur radio signals from the ISS can be received with a 2 meter vertical antenna so an elaborate tracking system is not necessary.
"The SSTV signal can be decoded with personal computer SSTV software after you connect your computer to the speaker output of your radio."
February 6th, 2006 at 4:32 am
(from amsat.org)
SuitSat Status 4 February
Paraphrasing Mark Twain….the demise of SuitSat-1 is highly 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 guess Bernie S. had it wrong, I tried picking up the signal on Wednesay which was supposed to be the last day to hear it and got nothing.
Track it here:
http://science.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/Spacecraft.html
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/ControlTeam.php
February 6th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Had to check the date after reading this…..nup, ain’t April 1st!