ARISS International Team Teleconference

Tuesday, May 23, 2006, 11:00 UTC (7:00 am ET)

Participants:

Frank Bauer

Rosalie White

Larry Agabekov

Masanobu Tsuji

Robin Haighton

Keigo Komuro

Dave Larsen

Daniel Lamoureux

Ken Nichols

Gaston Bertels

Lou McFadin

Keith Pugh

Graham Shirville

Miles Mann

Ken Pulfer

Carol Jackson

Kenneth Ransom

Absent:

Tadeu Fernandes

Sergey Samburov

Mark Steiner

Carlos Eavis

Jon Neubauer

Bob Bruninga

Bill Boston

ARISS I Agenda:

Administrative Session

1. Elections, Presenter: R. Haighton

Robin stated that we are nearing the two-year point for the terms of our ARISS senior officers -- Chairman, Vice Chairman and Secretary-Treasurer. Elections should be handled at our October ARISS Meeting. Please send nominations via email to Robin at this email address: ve3frh@cogeco.ca Nominations should be proposed or seconded by the delegates, only.

2. New Business (administrative only)

Frank gave an update on SuitSat certificates. Rosalie reminded delegates to tell Frank about requests they’ve received for certificates. Frank will circulate a draft certificate to everyone before our next ARISS teleconference. He will relate exactly what statistics will be needed for the certificates.

Frank reported on a multi-lateral charter between the space agencies and ARISS that NASA requests have in place. Our only formal international space agency agreement, at the moment, is one that is between the US and Russia, although we know that some delegations have charters with their own country’s space agency. The multi-lateral charter will include each ISS space agency (NASA, JAXA, CSA, Roscosmos and ESA). Rosalie, Frank, Mark and Kenneth have started work on the proposed charter. The final, pre-signed version will be shared with the international delegates.

General Session

3. Columbus update, Presenter: G. Bertels

Gaston gave a summary of progress on the Columbus module. The Europeans are working with the antennas; these are being tested in Poland. The vibration test has very difficult specifications, a factor of 2 to 4 times higher than what NASA requires. There are back-up antennas to work with if there is a failure of the tested one. Holes have been drilled on the Columbus module for the antennas, but the antennas won’t be installed prior to the module's delivery to the Kennedy Space Center, which should be soon. There is still work to be done on the antennas, including protection from atomic oxygen. Frank said a silicon oxide coating may be put on the kapton material that covers the antennas. This would be performed at Goddard. A document will be written on European ideas for what equipment should be included as part of the radio system on the Columbus module. The ISS WiFi system hasn’t yet been installed in ISS; so to avoid problems, we may wish to operate at the opposite end of the frequency spectrum from what the ISS selects.

4. SuitSat Contest, Presenter: F. Bauer

Frank summarized AMSAT-NA's "Chicken Little" contest for SuitSat. The contest objective is to guess the date when SuitSat-1 re-enters the atmosphere. This contest will continue to stimulate people’s interest in SuitSat, and the contest will have categories for youth and for adults. Cut-off date for entries will be around July 1.

5. New business

Miles asked for a discussion on speakers; he thought the speakers were for back-up use for the SSTV system. Frank said the team hasn’t done anything with the speakers because they weren’t needed, since the Kenwood already has speakers. Speakers take up too much of the finite amount of room that we have on the ISS. Lou said that we provided a cable if we wanted to use speakers. This is a speaker cable that handles the volume control on the Ericsson. This cable has never been flown since our plans were to use the Kenwood for SSTV. The team was avoiding using the Ericsson for SSTV because we had a lot of interference between the RF system and the audio in the adapter module.

Gaston discussed the IARU Region 1 conference, and how the European hams will have a table at the exhibition in the European Parliament building in Brussels. The conference is the week of March 5-9, 2007, when many Parliamentary committee members from 25 countries meet. Gaston said the European ARISS Team will have a display, and they’ll discuss plans at the Ham Radio convention that will be held in Frederichshafen. Please suggest ideas to Gaston, and it might be good to have a telebridge QSO. Ken Pulfer may help staff the booth, since he will be in Europe close to that time.

Our next meeting should be June 27. Carol will distribute initial information about the in-person October meetings in San Francisco and the SuitSat-1 “Chicken Little” contest.

Respectfully submitted,

Rosalie White

ARISS-International Secretary-Treasurer