ARISS International Teleconference

Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 12:15 UTC (7:15 am EST)

Participants:

Sergey Samburov

Rosalie White

Mark Steiner

Larry Agabekov

Keigo Komuro

Ken Nichols

Gaston Bertels

Lou McFadin

Keith Pugh

Carlos Eavis

Graham Shirville

Carol Jackson

Tadeu Fernandes

Daniel Lamoureux

Kenneth Ransom

Mark Severance

David Jordan

Gould Smith

Interpreter, Olga Chichkina

Not Present:

Fabiano Moser

Ken Pulfer

Masanobu Tsuji

Tom Clark

Will Marchant

Bill Boston

Ed Pritchard

Maurice André Vigneault

ARISS I Agenda:

Gaston offered the team best wishes for a successful New Year.

Administrative Session

1. ARISSat voice messages, Presenter: G. Smith

Given the fact that there are 11 voice messages from Europe, Gould is recommending that Europe be given two slots in the rotation so that the European messages can be cycled through more quickly. Everyone thought the idea to be acceptable.

There are also greetings from the other regions: 2 US, 1 Canada, 1 Russia and 1 Japanese.

2. QSL cards, Presenter: R. White

Rosalie has received only a few responses regarding final approval of the wording on the back side of the cards and is looking for final approval from the rest of the delegates.

3. New business (administrative only)

ESA is interested in taking advantage of Nespoli’s interest in ham radio during his flight and will be proposing the flight and installation of new bands (L/S) and modes of operation (ATV). More information will be following, including discussions of power levels, frequencies, and transmission types and their impacts on link budgets. Graham will provide technical details of potential communication types to Gaston via email.

General Session

4. Columbus module status, Presenter: M. Severance

Regarding the integration of a VHF/UHF capability, the antennas were successfully installed during and EVA on STS-129. There has been progress towards getting a “Black Brick” computer power supply to power the packet module that would in turn power one Ericsson radio at a time, either the VHF or the UHF unit. Discussions with ESA are leaning toward the installation of the equipment near Express Rack 3, the first rack on the right just as you enter the Columbus module and close to the coax antennas. Mark is working the manifesting of necessary cables on STS-134, ULF-6, in July of 2010. Mike Fincke of NASA and Roberto Vittori of ESA are both on that flight and we hope to take advantage of their interest in ham radio to get the equipment installed and checked out.

Sergey raised the need to ensure that all ISS radio systems can be operated without mutual interference. Part of the discussion will be the choice and coordination of frequencies of operation across all potential ham bands. Mark Severance noted the importance of this issue and that much of the work has already been accomplished. The Ericssons were approved for use in the Russian segment already so the process of extending this certification into the Columbus module should be straightforward and no problems are anticipated. ARISS operations will take into account any potential interference between radio systems in the Russian segment and the Columbus module, if any actually occurs. An important consideration in this will be simultaneous operations of more than one radio station at a time.

5. ARISSat-1 status, Presenter: L. McFadin

Lou asked Gould to report: Some of the work has been redistributed across the team to even the workload and remove some bottlenecks. Progress continues on flight board preparation and testing. Lou has completed the prototype of the main structure.

Gaston reminded the group that ARISSat-1 is the official name of this effort, as chosen by the ARISS-I delegates.

The current deployment date for planning purposes is Russian EVA-26 this October, although it remains to be officially documented in a protocol between NASA and Energia. The equipment needs to be in Russia ready for testing and integration in February for shipment to Baikonur in June for a July launch.

Graham asked about the frequency approval status, and will work with Lou to get the IARU application properly completed and submitted.

Dave Jordan is ready to start publishing the education images online as soon as proper permissions have been received and verified. He will send an email to Gaston with the details as to his status and his questions.

6. New business

None.

The next international partners meeting will be Tuesday, February 16, 2010.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Steiner, K3MS, for the ARISS Team