[BC] SuitSat

[Bill Sepmeier]

One of the strangest 
<http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/SuitSat_To_Be_Thrown_Overboard_February_3.html#>satellites 
in the history of the 
<http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/SuitSat_To_Be_Thrown_Overboard_February_3.html#>space 
age is about to go into orbit. Launch date: Feb. 
3rd. That's when astronauts onboard the 
<http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/SuitSat_To_Be_Thrown_Overboard_February_3.html#>International 
Space Station will hurl an empty spacesuit overboard.

The spacesuit is the satellite - "SuitSat" for short.

"SuitSat is a Russian brainstorm," explains Frank 
Bauer of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. 
"Some of our Russian partners in the ISS program, 
mainly a group led by Sergey Samburov, had an 
idea: Maybe we can turn old spacesuits into 
useful satellites." SuitSat is a first test of that idea.

"We've equipped a Russian Orlon spacesuit with 
three batteries, a radio transmitter, and 
internal sensors to measure 
<http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/SuitSat_To_Be_Thrown_Overboard_February_3.html#>temperature 
and battery power," says Bauer. "As SuitSat 
circles Earth, it will transmit its condition to the ground."

Unlike a normal spacewalk, with a human inside 
the suit, SuitSat's temperature controls will be 
turned off to conserve power. The suit, arms and 
legs akimbo, possibly spinning, will be exposed 
to the fierce rays of the sun with no way to regulate its internal temperature.

"Will the suit overheat? How long will the 
batteries last? Can we get a clear transmission 
if the suit tumbles?" wonders Bauer. These are 
some of the questions SuitSat will answer, laying 
the groundwork for SuitSats of the future.

SuitSat can be heard by anyone on the ground. 
"All you need is an antenna (the bigger the 
better) and a radio receiver that you can tune to 
145.990 MHz FM," says Bauer. "A police band 
scanner or a hand-talkie ham radio would work 
just fine." He encourages students, scouts, 
teachers and ham radio operators to tune in.

For years, Bauer and colleagues at Goddard have 
been connecting kids on Earth with astronauts on 
the ISS through the ARISS program (Amateur Radio 
on International Space Station). "There's a ham 
rig on the ISS, and the astronauts love talking 
to students when they pass over schools," Bauer 
explains. ARISS is co-sponsoring SuitSat along 
with the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation 
(AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), 
the Russian Space Agency and NASA.

When will SuitSat orbit over your home town?

Use Science at NASA's 
<http://science.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/25/JPass.asp>J-Pass 
utility to find out. The online program will ask 
for your zip code?that's all. Then it will tell 
you when the ISS is going to orbit over your 
area. (Be sure to click the "options" button and 
select "all passes.") Because the ISS and SuitSat 
share similar orbits, predictions for one will serve for the other.

Observers in the United States will find that 
SuitSat passes overhead once or twice a 
day?usually between midnight and 4 o'clock in the 
morning. At that time of day, SuitSat and the ISS 
will be in Earth's shadow and, thus, too dark to 
see with the naked eye. You'll need a radio to detect them.

"Point your antenna to the sky during the 5-to-10 
minute flyby," advises Bauer, and this is what you'll hear:

SuitSat transmits for 30 seconds, pauses for 30 
seconds, and then repeats. "This is SuitSat-1, 
RS0RS," the transmission begins, followed by a 
prerecorded greeting in five languages. The 
greeting contains "special words" in English, 
French, Japanese, Russian, German and Spanish for 
students to record and decipher. (Awards will be 
given to students who do this. Scroll to the 
"more information" area at the end of this story for details.)

Next comes telemetry: temperature, battery power, 
mission elapsed time. "The telemetry is stated in 
plain language?in English," says Bauer. Everyone 
will be privy to SuitSat's condition. Bauer adds, 
"Suitsat 'talks' using a voice synthesizer. It's pretty amazing."

The transmission ends with a Slow Scan TV 
picture. Of what? "We're not telling," laughs 
Bauer. "It's a mystery picture." (More awards 
will be given to students who figure out what it is.)

Students and teachers who want to try this, but 
have no clue how to begin, should contact their local ham radio club.


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