ARISS International Teleconference

Tuesday, May 20, 2008, 11:15 UTC (7:15 am ET)

Participants:

Frank Bauer

Sergey Samburov

Rosalie White

Mark Steiner

Larry Agabekov

Keigo Komuro

Masanobu Tsuji

Gaston Bertels

Lou McFadin

Keith Pugh

Carlos Eavis

Graham Shirville

Miles Mann

Ken Pulfer

Carol Jackson

Stefan Wagener

Tom Clark

Daniel Lamoureux

Kenneth Ransom

Mark Severance

Will Marchant

Dave Taylor

Sheila Bass

Interpreter: Alexandra Tussing

Not present:

Robin Haighton

Dave Larsen

Ken Nichols

Ed Pritchard

Tadeu Fernandes

Bill Boston

ARISS I Agenda:

Frank noted with a moment of silence the passing of Ron Parise, WA4SIR, an avid ham, astronaut, and key person in SAREX and the development of ARISS. He had been battling cancer for the last few years. Operating events and other commemorations of his life and contributions to amateur radio will be forthcoming.

Administrative Session

1. CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame, Presenter: R.

White Gaston Bertels has been inducted into CQ magazine’s Amateur Radio Hall of Fame for making a significant contribution to Amateur Radio and our planet. This award is given to persons who not only excel in personal performance in Amateur Radio, but also give back to Amateur Radio in a significant manner. Congratulations to Gaston for this significant achievement!

Gaston was pleased to receive this recognition, and happy that it also gained further recognition for ARISS across the Amateur Radio community. He noted that it takes teamwork across all the ARISS member organizations and personnel to make it happen.

2. ARISS-I Face to Face Meeting, Moscow, status, Presenter: M. Severance

Mark has received all the required information from the people traveling to Moscow this summer and will be submitted to Energia today. The visa process will now be started, and there is plenty of time to accomplish this part of the process. We have been able to obtain a block of rooms in the Volga, the hotel/apartment complex that NASA typically uses. Note that the cost of a typical single room is $250/night (although the fixed cost is in Euros), which is actually considered to be inexpensive for Moscow these days. A cash payment will result in a small discount, and the Volga does not take American Express.

3. New Business (administrative only)

None.

General Session

4. SuitSat-2 status, Presenter: L. McFadin

Progress continues to be made in the hardware and software development across all subsystem components. Sergey noted that Mr. Poleschuk would be a great resource for valuable input on the design and implementation of the folding of the solar arrays and their EVA deployment.

SuitSat will be an item on the agenda for the meeting in Moscow this summer.

Frank introduced Tom Clark / K3IO as a member of the SuitSat team, assisting Lou in leadership of all the activities. Tom has been around AMSAT for many years. Also, Gould Smith / WA4SXM, another long-time AMSAT expert, will be helping out in the technical arena as well.

5. New business

Miles asked about getting new hardware proposals into the Project Selection and Use Committee process.

NOTE: Be careful what hardware is brought into Russia. For example, radios brought in might not be allowed to be removed from Russia. 

Everyone who is considering bringing equipment into Russia should send this information to Carol so that she can compile it for our review.  Mark Severance asked to receive this information also.

Plans for Richard Garriott’s flight continue to progress. More information will be presented at the ARISS International Meeting in June.

The next international partners meeting will be June 17, 2008.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Steiner, K3MS, for the ARISS Team