ARISS International Teleconference

Tuesday March 15, 2005 12:30 UTC (7:30 am ET).

Participants:

Frank Bauer

Rosalie White

Larry Agabekov

Sergej Samburov

Keigo Komuro

Masanobu Tsuji

Ken Pulfer

Daniel Lamoureux

Gaston Bertels

Lou McFadin

Mark Steiner

Mark Spencer

Ken Nichols

Miles Mann

Carol Jackson

Keith Pugh

Bill Boston

Kenneth Ransom

Erika Vick

Interpreter, Mikhail Malyshau

Unable to Attend:

Robin Haighton

Scott Anderson

Dave Larsen

Scott Stevens

Tadeu Fernandes

ARISS I Agenda:

Administrative Session

1. Future U.S. School Group Applications, Presenters: R. White, F. Bauer

Frank Bauer and Rosalie White met with the education staff at NASA-HQ. They presented a plan whereby the US would accept school applications in a window of time that would open 1 or 2 times a year for a month or so. More emphasis will be put on the education proposal when it is evaluated, and there would be an announcement made of which schools would be selected for contacts for the next time period, along with a few backup schools.

2. Columbus Module Status, Presenter: G. Bertels

Gaston gave dimensions of the 435 MHz and the 1260/2004 MHz antennas (to be emailed to the ARISS-I list). There will be two of each affixed to the outside of the Columbus Module.

Funding: ESA Education Services has covered €55k, and other donations have reduced the needed funding to be covered to €33k. Gaston has opened a path to accept donations via PayPal. Gaston is working to publicize the plan to gather more donations from across Europe.

3. New Business (administrative only)

A) Debbie Brown-Biggs has left NASA-HQ, and Erika Vick is now working with us regarding the Education aspects of ARISS, and we welcome her. There are some budgetary changes due to the implementation of the new Exploration Initiative that will have an impact on the US team.

ARISS is working to get closer ties with the NASA Explorer Schools (NES) program. The program involves 50 schools selected each year for a 3 year relationship with NASA. Already we have been able to have an NES school step in at the last minute for a school contact opportunity.

B) The next two face to face ARISS meetings are:

        August 1 – 2, 2005, Surrey, UK

        October 2006, San Francisco, CA, US (tentative)

C) Gaston: The IARU Region 1 meeting will be in Switzerland this year, and Gaston is working on a proposal to have an ARISS working group with in IARU Region 1. Gaston will put an email together requesting a contact with the ISS for the meeting.

General Session

4. Suitsat Status, Presenters: L. McFadin, S. Samburov

Rosalie and Frank noted that the Education Office at NASA-HQ was very excited about the opportunity to develop and operate SuitSat as an educational opportunity.

Lou noted that the design is changing regarding the mounting of the earth sensor, antenna, and camera. The designs for the IHU, sensor system, RF system, and the safety interlocks are progressing. The IHU will carry pre-recorded voice greetings for transmission.

Sergej: In addition to the technical design, he is working on getting appropriate formal recognition of the project in Russia and the US. He has fabricated some mounting and cover mockups, and they are working on the assembly and installation plans and procedures for the crews. Sergej will be providing EVA-appropriate toggle switches to the US side for incorporation. Lou noted that 2A contact ratings would be good enough.

Sergej noted that the head of Energia has just signed off on SuitSat, making it an official project. Mr. Alexandrov will be the Project Manager and Sergej will be the hardware lead. The next step is to get the Russian federal space authority to approve it as well as NASA. The process to add the project to the Expedition 11 flight plan and the EVA planning will start on March 16. Sergej will be forwarding a project schedule in the next few days, including dates for deliverables.

Training for the Expedition 11 crew and backup crew is proceeding on amateur radio operations in general, as well as preparation of the SuitSat.

The suit will weigh about 70 kg after being emptied of equipment, and we will add about 10 kg of amateur radio equipment of which 4 kg will be batteries.

5. New business

None.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Steiner, K3MS for the ARISS Team