ARISS International Teleconference

Tuesday April 17, 2007 11:15 UTC (7:15 am EDT)

Participants:

Frank Bauer

Sergey Samburov

Rosalie White

Mark Steiner

Larry Agabekov

Keigo Komuro

Masanobu Tsuji

Daniel Lamoureux

Ken Nichols

Gaston Bertels

Lou McFadin

Keith Pugh

Carlos Eavis

Miles Mann

Ken Pulfer

Carol Jackson

Kenneth Ransom

Interpreter: Tanya Preiser

Not present:

Robin Haighton

Tadeu Fernandes

Bill Boston

Matt Keil

Dave Larsen

Graham Shirville

ARISS I Agenda:

Administrative Session

1. ARISS-I Meeting, Russia, Status, Presenter: S. Samburov

Sergey noted that it will be difficult to hold the ARISS-I meeting in October as previously planned, due to the number of activities celebrating the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. He rated it as 50-50 chance of changing. The responses from the team were mixed, some saying November was better than October and others saying October was better. The AMSAT-NA Symposium is set for October 26 – 28, 2007.

Frank will give the delegates until April 24 to respond with their preferences and inputs, and then the decision will be made. Sergey will re-send the plans from October presented at the last ARISS-I face to face meeting, but basically the plans were to be in Russia from a Sunday through the following Saturday.

2. New Business (administrative only)

General Session

3. Kenwood Reprogram & Ericsson test - Simonyi, Presenter: K. Ransom

Over the past several months there has been a great deal of discussion with Charles Simonyi and his team regarding getting his time to re-program the Kenwood D700. We found out about a month ago that the MCP (radio control program) was not certified to be run on an ISS laptop. The US team has worked hard, and the software has been approved for a one-time use. Currently we are waiting for final signatures for approval for uplink and for final approval to get it into Charles’ schedule. Sergey is following this process and is ready to get it into Charles’ schedule, but if Charles is not able to do it prior to his return then Sergey will have another Russian crewmember perform the procedure.

Additionally, the US team has been working on a procedure to have Charles test the Ericsson radio system to verify its operation or diagnose any problems, and Sergey will work to get this testing accomplished.

In the mean time, Charles’ school contacts have been going very well. Sergey mentioned that all of Charles’ time allotted for ham radio has been used up on school contacts, although Frank mentioned that these schools were Charles’ choices. Sergey will work to get this “additional” time into Charles’ schedule.

Ken Pulfer expressed appreciation for the US team’s hard work in getting everything ready so quickly in an attempt to have it done during Charles’ flight.

4. SuitSat-1 Certificates, Presenter: F. Bauer

No changes in this status, due to preparations for Charles Simonyi’s flight.

5. SuitSat-2 Status, Presenter: L. McFadin

Frank noted that SuitSat-2 has not yet been approved by the Russians, so all of our work is still pending their approval.

Lou – The team has made significant progress on the design, and provided a technical description of the design so far to Sergey to use in his project approval process.

6. Columbus Module Status, Presenter: G. Bertels

Manufacturing and testing is expected to be finished on April 24. During the next week documentation will be provided to ESTEC as the acceptance testing is performed. Delivery is anticipated by the end of April, directly to Mark Steiner via a shipping service.

Frank noted that AMSAT-Europe is still accepting donations to cover costs.

Howard Long will be at the Dayton Hamvention, so that would be a good forum to promote this effort.

7. New business

Next ARISS-I telecon: Tuesday, May 15, 2007, 11:15 UTC

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Steiner, K3MS, for the ARISS Team