ARISS International Teleconference

Tuesday June 21, 2005 11:30 UTC (7:30 am ET)

Participants:

Frank Bauer

Rosalie White

Larry Agabekov

Sergey Samburov

Masanobu Tsuji

Gaston Bertels 

Lou McFadin

Mark Steiner

Dave Larsen 

Mark Spencer

Daniel Lamoureux

Robin Haighton

Ken Nichols

Miles Mann

Carol Jackson

Keith Pugh

Carlos Eavis

Graham Shirville

Scott Stevens

Kenneth Ransom  

Unable to Attend:   

Ken Pulfer

Keigo Komuro

Tadeu Fernandes

Jim Heck

Erika Vick

Bill Boston 

Greetings to everyone.  

Administrative Session:  

1) ARISS Face-to-Face Meeting, University of Surrey, July/Aug 2005, Presenters: C. Eavis, G. Shirville

Discussion:

Graham reported that plans for the meeting room are set up, except for finalizing the ability of attendees to get access to the room.  WiFi access will be available. Jim Heck requests a copy of the agenda for our meetings, and then he will add in times for coffee breaks, meals, and so on.  A final agenda should be ready in about 3 weeks. Frank and Gaston will draft it. Delegates are invited to submit agenda items to them. Start time for the Monday morning meeting will be 9 AM, and it is likely that we should be able to complete our work on Tuesday evening.  

2) Columbus Antennas, presenter: G. Bertels

Discussion:

Gaston reports that things are developing quickly because of donations that have been coming in. The 47,000 Euros needed are now raised; we have what we need to order the L-Band and S -band combined antennas. The funds have been raised from local clubs, European hams, and 11 ham societies. Gaston is now working on the contract. UBA (Belgian IARU Society) is developing the text for the draft contract, and it will be submitted to the university for discussion.  The contract is due before the end of June. If we get another 30,000 Euros before autumn -- the amount needed for the UHF antennas -- these can be built in time for the deadline. A working group should meet in Surrey to discuss Columbus' equipment needs.  

3) New Business (administrative only)  

No new business topics were brought up.

General Session  

4) SSTV Status, presenters: F. Bauer, S. Samburov

Discussion:

Frank reported that the SSTV hardware was delivered through NASA for Energia, with potential launch via the Progress 19P mission in the August time frame.   

5) SuitSat Status, Presenters: S. Samburov, L. McFadin

        - Educational Proposal, presenter: F. Bauer

        - SpaceCam/School Spacewalk, presenter: M. Mann

Discussion:

Lou said the hardware was delivered to NASA, and will be sent to Energia possibly late this week or next week for testing by Sergey. The Digitalker board was integrated, and then tests were run, though the schedule was very tight for the team. One problem occurred during the burn-in test -- one of the two systems stopped communicating for a few minutes but was fine when the power was recycled.  The system stopped a second time, but did not do so again. The short deadline that had to be met resulted in a much shorter burn-in test than we would have liked. The unit that experienced the anomaly has been designated as the spare unit.  Another unit will be assembled and it will be given a long-term test.

Frank thanked the international partners for delivering the SuitSat audio, particularly with such a short deadline to meet. We received 180 items from schools, and these have been installed on a CD. Four identical copies of these CDs were made, one to be installed in the SuitSat, one for the ISS crew to review and two for Sergey. The CDs will be sent to Houston to be taken to Russia.  

As Miles suggested, we may be able to transmit the photos from the ISS.  

6)   New business 

We thanked Larry for assisting with translating teleconference items for Sergey.   The next teleconference should be July 20, just before the Surrey meetings. Thanks to everyone for participating today.  

Respectfully submitted,

Rosalie White, ARISS-I Secretary-Treasurer