ARISS International Team Teleconference

Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 11:15 UTC (7:15 am ET)

Participants:

Gaston Bertels

Sergey Samburov

Mark Steiner

Rosalie White

Larry Agabekov

Keigo Komuro

Ken Nichols

Lou McFadin

Keith Pugh

Carlos Eavis

Graham Shirville

Francesco De Paolis

Carol Jackson

Daniel Lamoureux

Kenneth Ransom

David Jordan

Dave Taylor

Darin Cowan

Interpreter, Anna Pererva

Not Present:

Fabio Azzarello

Masanobu Tsuji

Tadeu Fernandes

Carlos Neta

Maurice André Vigneault

Gould Smith

Barry Baines

Steve Ponder

Bill Boston

ARISS I Agenda:

Administrative Session

1. ARISS-I Face to Face Meeting, October 2011, Presenter: R. White

ARISS officers and US team leaders have been working on the agenda and feel it is as finalized as it can be this much before the meeting, and it should be sent out to the delegates shortly. Once they have had a chance to comment it will be sent to all the meeting participants.

Committee reports are due to Carol Jackson by October 1 so that attendees have a chance to read them prior to the meeting, rather than during the meeting. The meeting will be for the team to ask specific questions and discuss any actions that might need to be taken.

2. New business (administrative only)

Mark Severance will be leaving his position as head of the education programs for the ISS National Lab effective September 26.

General Session

3. Columbus module status, Presenters: G. Bertels, K. Ransom

Ham TV (Gaston) -

A contract has been signed between Kayser-Italia and the ESA for the development, fabrication, and testing of the Ham TV S-band television system. Emanuele D’Andria, IŘELE, is the point of contact for the ham community. A second contract has been signed to provide for the development, fabrication, and testing of the needed power supply for the Ham TV system.

Emanuele will be presenting the details of the new system at the October face to face meeting, but the understanding is that it will be close to what has been discussed in the previous ARCOL telecons.

Columbus equipment (Kenneth) –

The UHF unit is working well, and the US team is working to get a replacement VHF unit launched on the Space-X demonstration unit later this year.

4. ARISSat-1 status, Presenters: L. McFadin, S. Samburov

Lou reported that the satellite is still functioning extremely well even though it is only operable during the sunlit portion of the orbit due to the battery failure. The relatively quick degradation of the battery was anticipated, given the type of battery provided by RSC-Energia. Fortunately it failed open as opposed to failing shorted, allowing the satellite to operate as designed. The satellite is tumbling slowly with the +Z axis to the sun. The solar panels are running at 79° C. Many contacts have been made through the transponder, showing its effectiveness even with the missing antenna element.

5. New business

The Project Selection and Use (PSU) Committee is waiting for two proposals:

1) Ham TV

2) A second Kenwood D700 for deployment and operations in the Columbus Module

The committee will meet when it receives details on these proposals and hopes to have recommendations for the delegates at the October meeting, pending adequate time to evaluate and discuss them.

Japan has selected Dr. Yoshihiro Tsuruda, JA6XMK to be its representative on the committee. Welcome, Dr. Tsuruda!

The next international partners meeting will be Tuesday, October 18, 2011.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Steiner, K3MS, for the ARISS Team