ARISS International Teleconference

Tuesday January 18, 2005 12:30 UTC (7:30 am ET)

Participants:

Frank Bauer

Rosalie White

Larry Agabekov

Sergej Samburov

Keigo Komuro

Masanobu Tsuji

Gaston Bertels

Lou McFadin

Mark Steiner

Mark Spencer

Robin Haighton

Daniel Lamoureux

Ken Nichols

Miles Mann

Carol Jackson

Keith Pugh

Kenneth Ransom

Interpreter, Greg Khasin

Unable to Attend:

Ken Pulfer

Tadeu Fernandes

Not present:

Dave Larsen

Scott Stevens

Bill Boston

Scott Anderson

Erika Vick

ARISS I Agenda:

Administrative Session

1) New business (administrative only)

Gaston Bertels: Jim Heck will soon distribute first call for support for ARISS meeting in the UK in summer 2005.

Frank Bauer: We are now asking schools for specific information on news organizations that cover school contacts in order for us to tell a better story on the outreach benefits of ARISS activities. Rosalie noted that we are also asking teachers for information on students that have been motivated to pursue science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) careers in order for us to tell a better story on the education benefits of ARISS activities. She also asked that school teachers who utilized special lesson plans or classroom activities, be encouraged to share a little about that information with the mentors.

Gaston Bertels: The UK team is working with a local news organization to correct an Internet story with distortions and incorrect information regarding the various space agencies that also reflects negatively on ARISS as well.

Sergej Samburov will forward to Daniel Lamoureux the name and contact information for the Canadian school representative in Russia.

Irina Pronina was present with Sergej, and she covers the education aspects for the Russian team.

General Session

2) SuitSat, Presenters: S. Samburov, L. McFadin

Sergej: We will have an oxygen tank with reduced pressure, 50 atmospheres. Lou would like to know if we could just inflate the suit with just air to reduce the need to deal with the high-risk fire environment of pure oxygen.

Sergej noted that the equipment will have to work in low pressure. The antenna experts feel the metal mesh in the lower torso and legs will attenuate the signals too much to make putting the antennas there a useful idea. The idea is to install an RF adapter through the glove and mount a strap antenna on the glove. Sergej Krikalev will install it personally on-orbit, and it will vent to standard EVA pressures. Frank asked for a sketch of this antenna, and Lou for electrical and RF characteristics. Sergej expects to get it out in a day or so.

Lou described the system layout, including the internal controller, the earth sensor, the camera, and the SSTV system. The base of the SSTV system will be a Kenwood VC-H1 unit.

Lou will put together a proposal for the transmitter/receiver system and forward it to Sergej.

Miles Mann volunteered to talk to the president of Kantronics to get whatever certification information is needed, as well as ask them for donation of units for the project.

The team is trying to set up a design review and finalization meeting in the near term in Houston, TX.

3) New business

None.

Next telecon: Tuesday, February 15, 2005.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Steiner, K3MS for the ARISS Team