ARISS International Teleconference

Tuesday, September 23, 2008, 11:30 UTC (7:30 am ET)

Participants:

Frank Bauer

Sergey Samburov

Rosalie White

Mark Steiner

Larry Agabekov

Keigo Komuro

Masanobu Tsuji

Ken Nichols

Gaston Bertels

Carol Jackson

Daniel Lamoureux

Lou McFadin

Kenneth Ransom

Mark Severance

Keith Pugh

Fabiano Moser

Will Marchant

Carlos Eavis

Interpreter, Angelique Brice

Not present:

Robin Haighton

Graham Shirville

Ken Pulfer

Tadeu Fernandes,

Ed Pritchard

Bill Boston

Sheila Bass

Tom Clark

ARISS I Agenda:

Administrative Session

1. ARISS Chair Opening Remarks, Presenter: F. Bauer

Hurricane Ike has caused a significant disruption in the lives of those working at and around the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. We are glad that things are starting the long return to normalcy for them and wish them the best in the reconstruction. ARISS activities at JSC are beginning to get back online, and ARISS overall continued to function given the fact that it is spread around the world.

Frank noted that some incorrect information had been distributed by an individual ham and asked that all delegates and ARISS supporters maintain their diligence in releasing information to the public after ensuring its accuracy.

2. Backup ISS Ham Equipment, status, Presenter: S. Samburov

All the backup hardware for the Service Module was sent up on the Progress: Kenwood D-700, SSTV adapter, headphones, and associated cables. The docking to the ISS was delayed due to the effect of Hurricane Ike on JSC, but it is now successfully docked and unloading has begun. By the end of September it is anticipated that the crew will begin to set up the backup equipment.

The crew will store the old equipment for final disposition since there is no down-mass available at this point. Frank offered to store it in the US segment if stowage space is an issue on the Russian segment.

Lou asked Sergey to send the installation and test procedures to the US team, and Sergey said that it would be pretty much the same as before.

3. Richard Garriott activities, Presenter: F. Bauer/W. Marchant

Will sent out a PowerPoint presentation under separate cover with the information he presented. It is anticipated that Richard will be active from October 14 – 22, given an on-time launch. All schools have been scheduled. There is some confusion as to some of the actual details of Richard’s schedule that will be worked out. Will’s presentation may be found here: http://www.rac.ca/ariss/GarriottSummary20080912.ppt

Sergey developed a very detailed procedure for the operation of the VC-H1, and Frank complimented him on the quality of the procedure. The value of international cooperation is demonstrated yet again in the development of this system for flight so quickly.

The VC-H1 was tested at Goddard Space Flight Center for radiated emissions to ISS payload levels. There were only some small level spikes at around 15 kHz and its harmonics, attributed to the switching power supply for the electro-luminescent backlight for the LCD display. This is not anticipated to be a problem. Mark Steiner will fax the preliminary results to Sergey in the next day or so.

4. New Business (administrative only)

None.

General Session

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

Progress on the hardware and software continues to be made by all members of the team. Software is starting to progress, which is good. Lou received a schematic and other documentation from the Kursk experiment team and it is being evaluated.

6. New business

None.

The next international partners meeting will be Tuesday, October 21, 2008.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Steiner, K3MS, for the ARISS Team