ARISS International Teleconference
Tuesday, May 15, 2007, 11:15 UTC (7:15 am ET)
Participants:
Frank Bauer
Sergey Samburov
Rosalie White
Mark Steiner
Larry Agabekov
Masanobu Tsuji
Robin Haighton
Dave Larsen
Daniel Lamoureux
Ken Nichols
Gaston Bertels
Lou McFadin
Keith Pugh
Graham Shirville
Miles Mann
Ken Pulfer
Carol Jackson
Kenneth Ransom
Matt Keil
Interpreter: Olga Frumkin
Not present:
Keigo Komuro
Tadeu Fernandes
Bill Boston
Carlos Eavis
ARISS I Agenda:
Administrative Session
1. ARISS-I Meeting, Russia, Status, Presenter: S. Samburov
- Location and plans needed by June 1
- Invitation
Sergey would like to propose the meeting dates of 26 – 30 November, plus one day early for arrival and one day later for departure. Meeting locations would be Moscow – Energia, Kaluga, and Star City. It would be an aggressive agenda, but business should be able to be finished. Could also hold meeting on train to Kaluga, a 3 hour trip.
Sergey would like to know quickly how many attendees would be able to make it.
Frank expressed concern due to the major Thanksgiving holiday in the US in November. Visas are required, and to get them individuals must receive an invitation. Frank asked Sergey for a commitment letter from Energia. While Frank was in Houston last week he met with Carlos Fontanot, and Frank and Carlos will be setting up a telecon with the US team and Mr. Polyshuk of Energia to discuss this meeting. The main goal is to ensure that ARISS is recognized as an official organization and will get full support from Energia and the other organizations in the Russian team. The invitation for the meeting will come from AMSAT-Russia. Options for dates include waiting until December or spring 2008 and/or having a virtual meeting (extended telecon) to get required items accomplished.
Sergey is interested in finding out how filled the agenda might be in order to determine how much time is needed for actual meetings.
2. New Business (administrative only)
General Session
3. SuitSat-1 Certificates, Presenter: F. Bauer
Frank has generated three different SuitSat 1 certificates, each with different pictures and wording that is appropriate to its purpose: 1) Those who heard SuitSat 1 after its deployment. 2) Those who worked to make SuitSat 1 a success. 3) Those who entered the re-entry contest.
Frank needs the list of people who heard SuitSat 1, name and calls, from all of the ARISS international partners. He also needs a list of those who helped develop or operate SuitSat- 1.
4. SuitSat-2 Status, Presenter: L. McFadin
Lou and his team have been busy designing and developing parts of the system. He will be taking a prototype of the antenna to the Dayton Hamvention. Testing of the signal processing and RF components will be starting next week, including a systems-level integration of the various subsystems. The SuitSat team will be having a technical interchange meeting to finalize the design. NASA has made a tentative agreement to provide some solar panels for free, and the team is designing a power system to utilize them. Sergey needs the dimensions of the solar panels so he can start the design of the attachment of the panels to the suit.
A description of the SuitSat project has been sent to Sergey for him to get Energia approval. Sergey has had the document translated and added some additional items that they needed. Mr. Polyshuk has approved it, and it is on the desk of the Energia VP, Mr. Sergey Krikalev, for approval. Once Mr. Krikalev approves it, it should be approved by the President of Energia with no problems. A suit should be available later this year.
5. Columbus Module Status, Presenter: G. Bertels
Four L/S band antennas have been manufactured, and their costs have been covered by donations. ETS Labs, associated with ESTEC, will be doing the qualification tests consisting of high-level vibration, vacuum outgassing, thermal, and static pull tests on the attachment points. This testing costs €13,500 plus VAT, and Gaston was able to get ESA to cover these costs, one half by Columbus and the other half by ESA Education.
The four flight antennas are in Noordwijk for testing. Two antennas were flight vibration tested, successfully, and then the shaker broke. Gaston wonders if the antennas are shaker killers, which is preferable to the reverse. In the meantime, all four antennas will undergo vacuum outgassing testing. Then two antennas will be shipped to NASA-Goddard for SiO2 coating, hopefully before the end of May. The other two antennas will be tested once the shaker is repaired. A team will travel to the US to participate in the integration and testing of the flight antennas on the Columbus module at KSC.
6. New business
Miles thanked Frank and Kenneth for the status report, and asked if there were any plans for the near future to return public voice access capability to the D700. Frank noted that we are still considering all options, working on long-term solutions (computer re-programming) as well as seeking short-term solutions as they become available.
7. Next meeting – June 19
Respectfully submitted,
Mark Steiner, K3MS, for the ARISS Team