ARISS International Teleconference

Tuesday December 16, 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

Ken Pulfer

Carol Jackson

Fabiano Moser

Will Marchant

Daniel Lamoureux

Kenneth Ransom

Mark Severance

Interpreter, Angelique Brice

Not present:

Robin Haighton

Tadeu Fernandes

Ken Nichols

Tom Clark

Bill Boston

ARISS I Agenda:

Administrative Session

1. Next ARISS-I face to face meeting – Spring 2009, Presenter: F. Bauer

Given the difficulties securing a Canadian location, Frank is leaning toward having the ARISS-I meeting somewhere in Europe in Spring 2009. Team members in Portugal have expressed interest in hosting the meeting, and ESTEC in Noordwijk is a consideration. April is probably the earliest possible date to be able to plan and accomplish a meeting, and Gaston will approach ESTEC to discuss the possibilities. May would be problematic, so it may be as late as June 2009. Mark Severance would like to have an ARWG meeting in conjunction with the ARISS International meeting, probably 2 days immediately preceding it.

There is a tentative plan is to have an international ops team meeting in conjunction with the AMSAT-NA meeting in Washington in Fall 2009.

2. Special Event and Certificate, Presenter: F. Bauer

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Owen Garriott’s flight that contained the first use of amateur radio on a human-crewed space flight, there are a number of special event activities that have begun in November and will run through January. Different modes (voice, packet, SSTV, and crossband operations) are being used to commemorate this special occasion. Special certificates will be developed for contacts with the ISS between November 15, 2008 and January 15, 2009.

3. New business (administrative only)

Carlos Eavis will be meeting with Richard Garriott and will pass on greetings from the ARISS International team. Richard Garriott is developing his own QSL card, so Frank is asking all QSL card handlers for ARISS to hold off on mailing out the ARISS QSL’s until Richard’s are ready to distribute.

General Session

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

The team in Phoenix is working hard, and initial system hardware integration and testing is anticipated in 3-4 weeks. Software module development continues, with initial integration of modules having begun. Changes to the transmitter to reduce power consumption are being considered. Software for the Software Defined Transponder (SDX) has been moving at a slower pace due to family issues being faced by one of the developers.

5. New business

Notes:

Mark Severance expressed appreciation for the dedication, hard work, and amazing performance of the volunteer team that makes up ARISS. He has seen a great deal of successful efforts this past year, and is excited about the future of ARISS and its operations.

Holiday greetings were shared amongst the team, along with gratitude for all the amazing things we do for schoolchildren and others around the world.

The next international partners meeting will be Tuesday, January 27, 2009. This is the fourth Tuesday, as the third Tuesday will be the inauguration of the new US President and the Washington NASA team has the day off.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Steiner, K3MS, for the ARISS Team