ANS-189 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin - SuitSat-2 Transforms Into a Satellite
 

SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-189.01
SuitSat-2 Transforms Into a Satellite

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 189.01
From AMSAT HQ SILVER SPRING, MD.
July 8, 2009
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-189.01

Due to storage considerations on the International Space Station,
the two surplus Orlan space suits in storage on the International
Space Station were discarded via the Progress Cargo Vessel. One of
these suits was to be used to house the electronics for the upcoming
SuitSat-2 mission where the batteries were to be mounted inside the
suit, solar panels attached to the extremities with the electronics,
video cameras and antenna mounted on the helmet by the ISS crew prior
to deployment during an EVA.

The Progress, with the suits included, was undocked from ISS this
past week.

The ARISS International Team has been informed that there is still
space available for shipment of the SuitSat-2 electronics on the
projected cargo flight to the Space Station in January 2010 and the
EVA scheduled for April 2010 still has a 'SuitSat-2' deployment
scheduled.

Consequently, the AMSAT team developing SuitSat-2 electronics on
behalf of ARISS International is focusing on completing development
in anticipation that deployment will still take place in Spring 2010
using a new structure to house it. In addition, the experiment being
developed by Russia's Kursk State University is still expected to
be integrated into the electronics once the US produced equipment
is delivered to Russia this fall. Discussions are currently taking
place between Russian ARISS members and the AMSAT project managers
concerning the design of the new structure and where it will be
constructed with these decisions to be made in the next few weeks.

The AMSAT team building the electronics is meeting July 10-12 in
Phoenix to initiate integration testing of all of the components
built in the US with subsequent testing to continue through the
remainder of the summer in anticipation of shipping equipment to
Russia in the fall.

The removal of the Orlan space suits from ISS removes the 'Suit'
component of this deployment and at some point a new project name
will be used to reflect the change in configuration. However, the
significant importance of this project to both ARISS and AMSAT is
not diminished.

ARISS sees this mission as an important component of education out-
reach as it will provide an opportunity for students around the world
to listen for recorded greetings from space as well as learn about
tracking spacecraft in orbit.

Meanwhile, the deployment of SDX (Software Defined Transponder), the
associated receiver and transmitter modules, and control electronics
is a critical milestone for AMSAT as this upcoming flight provides an
opportunity to flight test the next generation of spacecraft hardware.
Lessons learned from this deployment will be applied to future flight
opportunities as AMSAT moves towards a 'modularization approach' to
spacecraft development with the expectation the future spacecraft
missions will utilize a derivative of SDX and the associated hardware.

[ANS thanks AMSAT VP-Manned Spaceflight Will Marchant, KC6ROL for
the above information]

/EX